Sir Andrew Huxley OM FRS, one of the greatest physiologists of his generation, has died aged 94. Andrew, together with Alan Hodgkin, determined the basis for nerve cell excitability, applying the technique of the voltage clamp to identify the ionic currents in the squid axon. This pioneering research was carried out at the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth and at the Physiological Laboratory in Cambridge. Published exactly 60 years ago, the work was a fundamental breakthrough and led to the subsequent understanding of voltage-gated ion channels, the understanding of propagating action potentials and provided the framework for studying and analysing ion channel kinetics. With Alan Hodgkin and John Eccles, Andrew shared the 1963 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for this work. In his subsequent work, carried out largely at UCL, he developed the cross-bridge theory of muscle contraction. Andrew was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1955 and was knighted in 1974 and subsequently appointed to the Order of Merit in 1983. He served as President of the Royal Society from 1980 to 1985.

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