Rate My Professor John Eccles

Sir John Carew Eccles was an Australian neurophysiologist who served as Foundation Professor of Physiology at the John Curtin School of Medical Research at the Australian National University from 1951 to 1966. Born in Melbourne in 1903, he graduated in medicine from the University of Melbourne in 1925 and, as a Rhodes Scholar, pursued neurophysiology research with Sir Charles Sherrington at the University of Oxford, earning a DPhil. He held the Chair of Physiology at the University of Otago in New Zealand from 1943 to 1951 before joining ANU, where he conducted pioneering studies on synaptic transmission using intracellular microelectrodes. His work at ANU demonstrated the chemical nature of excitatory and inhibitory synaptic transmission in the central nervous system, particularly in the spinal cord, thalamus, hippocampus, and cerebellum.

Eccles shared the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Alan Hodgkin and Andrew Huxley for discoveries concerning the ionic mechanisms involved in excitation and inhibition in the peripheral and central portions of the nerve cell membrane. He attracted international researchers to Canberra and advanced techniques in neurophysiology, neurochemistry, and neuropharmacology. Later appointments included positions at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He was a foundation fellow and president of the Australian Academy of Science, and was knighted in 1958 and appointed Companion of the Order of Australia. Eccles authored numerous publications, including books on the mind-brain problem, and his research established a major school of neurophysiology. Professional Email: null