Sir Alan Lloyd Hodgkin
Famous As: Biophysicist & Physiologist
Nationality: British
Died At Age: 84
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Born In: Banbury, Oxfordshire, England, UK
Father: George Hodgkin
Mother: Mary Wilson
Spouse/Partner: Marion Rous
Children: Sarah, Deborah, Jonathan, Rachel
Place Of Death: Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK
Sir Alan Lloyd Hodgkin was an English biophysicist and a physiologist who received the Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine along with Sir John Eccles and Andrew Fielding Huxley for discovering the chemical processes which controlled the transmission of electrical impulses from one nerve cell in the brain to another though nerve fibers. He and his fellow scientists introduced microelectrodes into the giant nerve fibers of a squid and showed that the electrical potential of a nerve fiber transmitting an impulse is higher than a nerve fiber which remains at rest. This discovery was in contradiction to the earlier hypothesis that nerve membranes break down when an impulse was transmitted. This theory formulated by Hodgkin and Huxley is known as the ‘voltage clamp’. They found that a large amount of potassium ions is concentrated inside a nerve fiber while the solution which surrounds the fibers has a large concentration of sodium ions. They proved with the help of experiments that nerve fibers allow only potassium ions to pass through the membrane when they are at rest while only sodium ions are allowed passage when the fibers are excited. The continuous sequence of depolarization that occurs to the nerve cell membranes discovered by him is known as the ‘Hodgkin Cycle’.
Childhood & Early Life
Alan Lloyd Hodgkin was born in Banbury, Oxfordshire, England on February 5, 1914 to George Hodgkin and Mary Wilson.
When his father died of dysentery in 1918 in Baghdad, his mother re-married Lionel Smith.
They lived with him thereafter.
He studied at the ‘The Downs School, Malvern’ from 1923 to 1927 and later at the
He studied at the ‘The Downs School, Malvern’ from 1923 to 1927 and later at the
‘Gresham’s School, Holt’ from 1927 to 1932.
He joined the Trinity College affiliated to the Cambridge University in 1932 and studied there
till 1936.
- Sir Alan Hodgkin’s writings include the book titled ‘Conduction of the Nervous Impulse’
- which was published in 1964.
- He published his autobiography titled ‘Chance and Design: Reminiscences of Science in
- Peace and War’ in 1992.
- Sir Alan Lloyd Hodgkin was awarded the ‘Royal Medal of the Royal Society’ in 1958.
- He received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1963.
- He was made a ‘Member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences’ in 1964.
- He received the ‘Copley Medal of the Royal Society’ in 1965.
- He was made a ‘Knight of the British Empire’ and received his knighthood in 1972
- He was also awarded the ‘Order of Merit’ in 1973.
- While working at the Rockfeller Institute, he met Marion Rous, daughter of the
- famous pathologist Peyton Rous, and married her in 1944.
- He had a son, Jonathan, after two daughters, Sarah and Deborah, and then the
- youngest daughter, Rachel, from this marriage.
- Sir Alan Lloyd Hodgkin died in Cambridge, England on December 20, 1998.
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