In the novel Destination Unknown, Dr Simon Murchison is a scientist who works at Aristides's research establishment at a remote location in the High Atlas Mountains. As he works in the same laboratory as Thomas Betterton, it can be inferred that he is a physicist. Murchison tells Hilary Craven that he likes the working conditions at the research station. There are no interruptions and one could have all the apparatus one wanted.
Murchison is described as about twenty-six, and looked "thin and anaemic". He also has an Italian wife, Bianca who travelled to the research station to accompany him.