death_date children nationality fields birth_date residence alma_mater death_place image_size spouse image citizenship name caption birth_place awards parents known_for workplaces article_title birth_name
30 may 2012 1 son and 5 daughters english physiology and biophysics 22 november 1917 grantchester , cambridge , england trinity college , cambridge cambridge , cambridgeshire , england 192px j. richenda g. pease -lrb- 1947 -- 2003 -rrb- andrew fielding huxley nobel.jpg british british sir andrew huxley huxley in 1963 hampstead , london , england frs medicine -lrb- 1963 -rrb- copley medal -lrb- 1973 -rrb- -lrb- 1955 -rrb- nobel prize in physiology or leonard huxley , rosalind bruce huxley nerve action potentials , muscle contraction university of cambridge university college london andrew huxley
 andrew fielding huxley
andrew huxley

sir andrew fielding huxley , om , prs -lrb- 22 november 191730 may 2012 -rrb- was a nobel prize-winning english physiologist and biophysicist .
he was born into the prominent huxley family .
after graduating from westminster school in central london , from where he won a scholarship to trinity college , cambridge , he joined alan lloyd hodgkin to study nerve impulses .
their eventual discovery of the basis propagation of nerve impulses -lrb- called action potential -rrb- earned them the nobel prize in physiology or medicine in 1963 .
they made their discovery from the giant axon of the atlantic squid .
soon after the outbreak of second world war , huxley was recruited by the british anti-aircraft command and later transferred to the admiralty .
after the war he resumed research at the university of cambridge , where he developed interference microscopy that would be suitable for studying muscle fibres .
in 1952 he was joined by a german physiologist rolf niedergerke .
together they discovered in 1954 the mechanism of muscle contraction , popularly called the `` sliding filament theory '' , which is the foundation of modern understanding of muscle mechanics .
in 1960 he became head of the department of physiology at university college london .
he was elected a fellow of the royal society in 1955 , and president in 1980 .
the royal society awarded him the copley medal in 1973 for his collective contribution to nerve impulse and muscle contraction .
he was conferred knight bachelor by queen elizabeth ii in 1974 , and was appointed to the order of merit in 1983 .
he was a fellow of trinity college , cambridge , until his death .
