Christ's College, Cambridge Cambridge University (PhD)
Known for
Muscle contraction Muscle proteins
Spouse
Frances Huxley
Awards
William Bate Hardy Prize (1966) Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize (1971) Royal Medal (1977) E.B. Wilson Medal (1983) Albert Einstein World Award of Science (1987) Franklin Medal (1990) Copley Medal (1997)
Scientific career
Fields
Molecular Biologist
Institutions
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University College London MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology Brandeis University
Doctoral advisor
John Kendrew
Military career
Allegiance
United Kingdom
Service/branch
Royal Air Force (RAFVR)
Years of service
1943–1947
Rank
Flight Lieutenant
Battles/wars
Second World War
Awards
Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE, Military Division)
Hugh Esmor Huxley MBE FRS (25 February 1924 – 25 July 2013) was a British molecular biologist who made important discoveries in the physiology of muscle.[1][2][3][4][5][6] He was a graduate in physics from Christ's College, Cambridge. However, his education was interrupted for five years by the Second World War, during which he served in the Royal Air Force. His contribution to development of radar earned him an MBE.
Huxley was the first PhD student of Laboratory of Molecular Biology of the Medical Research Council at Cambridge, where he worked on X-ray diffraction studies on muscle fibres. In the 1950s he was one of the first to use electron microscopy to study biological specimens. During his postdoctoral at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he, with fellow researcher Jean Hanson, discovered the underlying principle of muscle movement, popularised as the sliding filament theory in 1954. After 15 years of research, he proposed the "swinging cross-bridge hypothesis" in 1969, which became modern understanding of the molecular basis of muscle contraction, and much of other cellular motility.[7][8]
Huxley worked at University College London for seven years, and at Laboratory of Molecular Biology for fifteen years, where he was its Deputy Director from 1979. Between 1987 and 1997, he was professor at Brandeis University in Massachusetts, where he spent the rest of his life as emeritus professor.
^Holmes, K. C. (2013). "Hugh Esmor Huxley (1924-2013)". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. 110 (46): 18344–18345. Bibcode:2013PNAS..11018344H. doi:10.1073/pnas.1318966110. PMC 3832017. PMID 24173032.
^"Professor Hugh Esmor Huxley MBE FRS | Christs College Cambridge". Christs.cam.ac.uk. 25 July 2013. Archived from the original on 16 September 2013. Retrieved 31 July 2013.
^The Official Site of Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize
^Hugh Huxley, editor "Memories and Consequences: Visiting Scientists at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge", Medical Research Council, 2013, ISBN 978-184831-646-1. This book is collection of 41 essays by some of the many visiting scientists to the MRC LMB in Cambridge, England, during the period 1957-1986.
^John Finch; 'A Nobel Fellow On Every Floor', Medical Research Council 2008, 381 pp, ISBN 978-1-84046-940-0; this book is all about the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge.
^Weber, A (2002). "Hugh E. Huxley: birth of the filament sliding model of muscle contraction". Trends in Cell Biology. 12 (5): 243–245. doi:10.1016/S0962-8924(02)02270-5. PMID 12062173.
^Pollard, Thomas D.; Goldman, Yale E. (2013). "Remembrance of Hugh E. Huxley, a founder of our field". Cytoskeleton. 70 (9): 471–475. doi:10.1002/cm.21141. PMID 24106169. S2CID 10035669.
Hugh Esmor Huxley MBE FRS (25 February 1924 – 25 July 2013) was a British molecular biologist who made important discoveries in the physiology of muscle...
one consisting of Andrew Huxley and Rolf Niedergerke from the University of Cambridge, and the other consisting of HughHuxley and Jean Hanson from the...
Fielding Huxley OM FRS HonFREng (22 November 1917 – 30 May 2012) was an English physiologist and biophysicist. He was born into the prominent Huxley family...
discovering how, in capillaries, blood flow is regulated. In 1954, Andrew Huxley and HughHuxley, alongside their research team, discovered the sliding filaments...
the muscle. It was independently developed by Andrew Huxley and Rolf Niedergerke and by HughHuxley and Jean Hanson in 1954. Physiologically, this contraction...
Sir Julian Sorell Huxley FRS (22 June 1887 – 14 February 1975) was a British evolutionary biologist, eugenicist, and internationalist. He was a proponent...
of Molecular Biology with HughHuxley. His research is focused on studying molecular motors particularly myosin. With Huxley, he started working on an...
to molecular biology. London: Bell & Hyman. ISBN 978-0-7135-0618-1. Huxley, Hugh Esmor (1953). Investigations of biological structures by X-ray methods :...
Bressani (1984) Werner Stumm (1985) Monokombu Sambasivan Swaminathan (1986) HughHuxley (1987) Margaret Burbidge (1988) Martin Kamen (1989) 1990s Gustav Nossal...
filament theory of muscle contraction. He and Andrew Huxley, complimenting the independent works of HughHuxley and Jean Hanson, revealed that muscle contraction...
Bressani (1984) Werner Stumm (1985) Monokombu Sambasivan Swaminathan (1986) HughHuxley (1987) Margaret Burbidge (1988) Martin Kamen (1989) 1990s Gustav Nossal...
Bressani (1984) Werner Stumm (1985) Monokombu Sambasivan Swaminathan (1986) HughHuxley (1987) Margaret Burbidge (1988) Martin Kamen (1989) 1990s Gustav Nossal...
Bressani (1984) Werner Stumm (1985) Monokombu Sambasivan Swaminathan (1986) HughHuxley (1987) Margaret Burbidge (1988) Martin Kamen (1989) 1990s Gustav Nossal...
Structure of Biological Systems”. The group, which by 1948 also included HughHuxley working on muscle, was joined in 1949 by Francis Crick, who worked initially...
Bressani (1984) Werner Stumm (1985) Monokombu Sambasivan Swaminathan (1986) HughHuxley (1987) Margaret Burbidge (1988) Martin Kamen (1989) 1990s Gustav Nossal...
Bressani (1984) Werner Stumm (1985) Monokombu Sambasivan Swaminathan (1986) HughHuxley (1987) Margaret Burbidge (1988) Martin Kamen (1989) 1990s Gustav Nossal...
Bressani (1984) Werner Stumm (1985) Monokombu Sambasivan Swaminathan (1986) HughHuxley (1987) Margaret Burbidge (1988) Martin Kamen (1989) 1990s Gustav Nossal...
Head. While working at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she, with HughHuxley, discovered the mechanism of movement of muscle fibre in 1954, which...
– William J. Guste, American lawyer and politician (b. 1922) 2013 – HughHuxley, English-American biologist and academic (b. 1924) 2014 – Bel Kaufman...
pioneer of site-directed spin labelling. Member Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. HughHuxley (1924–2013). British molecular biologist at University College London...
dislocation impurity interactions, fracture and irradiation effects" 1997 HughHuxley "In recognition of his pioneering work on the structure of muscle and...
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