Andrew Huxley

Sir Andrew Huxley
Huxley in 1963
Born	Andrew Fielding Huxley (1917-11-22)22 November 1917 Hampstead, London, England
Died	30 May 2012(2012-05-30) (aged 94) Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England
Nationality	British
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge
Known for	Nerve fibre action potentials
Spouse(s)	Jocelyn R.G. Pease (m. 1947-2003; her death)
Children	1 son, 5 daughters
Awards	1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Scientific career
Fields	physiologist and biophysicist

Sir Andrew Huxley OM FRS (Andrew Fielding Huxley, 22 November 1917 – 30 May 2012) was an English physiologist and biophysicist.

Huxley was born in Hampstead, London. He was the youngest son of writer and editor Leonard Huxley by his second wife Rosalind Bruce. He was the half-brother of writer Aldous Huxley and fellow biologist Julian Huxley, and grandson of biologist T H. Huxley. He studied Natural Sciences at Trinity College, Cambridge.

Huxley won the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his experimental and mathematical work with Alan Hodgkin on the basis of nerve action potentials. These are the electrical impulses that make nerve fibres work, and so the whole central nervous system.

Hodgkin and Huxley shared the prize that year with Sir John Eccles, who was cited for research on nerve synapses. Hodgkin and Huxley's findings led the pair to suggest the existence of ion channels, which were found only decades later.

Huxley was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 17 March 1955. He was President of the Royal Society from 1980 to 1985, and Master of Trinity from 1984–1990. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II on 12 November 1974, and appointed to the Order of Merit on 11 November 1983.

Related pages

• Huxley family

References

• Huxley A.F. 1980. Reflections on muscle. The Sherrington Lectures XIV. Liverpool.