Person

Eccles, John Carew (1903 - 1997)

AO Kt FAA FRS FRACP FRSNZ

Born
27 January 1903
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Died
2 May 1997
Occupation
Nobel laureate and Physiologist

Summary

Sir John Eccles was Professor of Physiology and Biophysics at the State University of New York, Buffalo 1968-1975. Earlier he was Professor of Physiology at the Australian National University 1951-1966 and was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1963 (jointly). Eccles was a member of many societies and organisations including the American Medical Association / Education and Research Foundation, and the Institute for Biomedical Research, USA.

He is commemorated by Sir John Eccles Lecture, University of New South Wales, established in 1993 to mark his 90th birthday.

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Details

Chronology

1925
Education - Bachelor of Medicine (MB) and Bachelor of Surgery (BS), University of Melbourne
c. 1926 - c. 1929
Education - Master of Arts (MA) and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Oxford, UK
1927 - 1929
Career position - Junior Research Fellow, Exeter College, University of Oxford
1927 - 1929
Award - Christopher Welch Scholarship to study, University of Oxford
1932 - 1934
Career position - Staines Medical Fellow at Exeter College
1934 - 1937
Career position - Tutorial Fellow at Magdalen College and University Demonstrator in Physiology, University of Oxford
1937 - 1943
Career position - Director of the Kanematsu Memorial Institute of Pathology, Sydney Hospital
1938 - 1997
Award - Foundation Fellow, Royal Australasian College of Physicians (FRACP)
1941 - 1997
Award - Fellow, The Royal Society, London (FRS)
1944 - 1951
Career position - Professor of Physiology, University of Otago, New Zealand
1951 - 1997
Award - Fellow, Royal Society of New Zealand (FRSNZ)
1952 - 1966
Career position - Professor of Physiology, Australian National University, Canberra
1953
Career event - Petitioner for the Australian Academy of Science
1954 - 1997
Award - Founding Fellow, Australian Academy of Science (FAA)
1956
Award - Walter Burfitt Prize, Royal Society of New South Wales
1957
Career position - Member of Council, Australian Academy of Science
1957 - 1961
Career position - President, Australian Academy of Science
12 Jun 1958
Award - Knight Bachelor (Kt) - in recognition of services to physiological research
1961 -
Career position - Member of the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina
1961
Award - James Cook Medal, Royal Society of New south Wales
1962
Award - Royal Medal, The Royal Society, London
1963
Award - Cothenius Medal, Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina
1963
Award - Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (jointly with Alan Lloyd Hodgkin and Andrew Fielding Huxley) - for their discoveries concerning the ionic mechanisms involved in excitation and inhibition in the peripheral and central portions of the nerve cell membrane
1963
Award - Matthew Flinders Medal and Lecture, Australian Academy of Science
1965
Award - Doctor of Laws (LLD), honoris causa, University of Melbourne
1966
Award - Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences
1966 - 1968
Career position - Member of the Institute for Biomedical Research in Chicago, USA
1968 - 1975
Career position - Distinguished Professor of Physiology and Biophysics, State University of New York in Buffalo, USA
26 Jan 1990
Award - Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) - in recognition of service to science, particularly in the field of neurophysiology

Related Corporate Bodies

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

  • David Roderick Curtis - Records, 1954 - 2005, MS 217; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details
  • John Carew Eccles - Records, MS 199; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details

John Curtin School of Medical Research

  • John Carew Eccles - Records, 1951 - 1966; John Curtin School of Medical Research. Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

Books

  • Eccles, John Carew, My life-long search for the "self" in ourselves: personal memories given to my daughter, Mary, in 1991: annotated and extended with supplementary family and biographical nformation by Mary R. Mennis and James P. Chalcroft (Brisbane: M. Mennis, 2025), 494 pp. Details
  • Mennis, Mary R., The Book of Eccles: a Portrait of Sir John Eccles, Australian Nobel Laureate and Scientist (Aspley: Lalong Enterprises, 2003), 60 pp. Details

Book Sections

  • Allison, David K., 'Eccles, John Carew' in New Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Koertge, Noretta, ed., vol. 2 (Detroit : Charles Scribner's Sons, 2008), pp. 329-338. Details
  • Beale, R, 'John Carew Eccles' in Australia's Nobel Laureates - Adventures in Innovation (Sydney: ABIE Australian Business and Investment Explorer, 2004), pp. 54-63. Details
  • Matthews, Peter B. C., 'Sir John Carew Eccles, 1903-1997' in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004). Details

Journal Articles

  • Andersen, P.; Lundberg, A., 'John C. Eccles', Trends in Neuroscience, 20 (1997), 324-325. Details
  • Borck, C., 'John C. Eccles (1903 - 1997) neurophysiologist and neurophilosopher', Journal of the history of neurosciences, 7 (1) (1998), 76-81. https://doi.org/10.1076/jhin.7.1.76.13093. Details
  • Curtis, David, 'Sir John Eccles, AC - Nobel Laureate', Melbourne University Magazine (2002), 28-29. Details
  • Curtis, David R.; Andersen, Per, 'John Carew Eccles 1903-1997', Historical Records of Australian Science, 13 (3) (2001), 439-473. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR0011340439. Details
  • Curtis, David; Andersen, Per, 'Sir John Carew Eccles, AC', Biographical memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, 47 (2001), 161-187, https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbm.2001.0010. Details
  • Cytowicz, Barbara, 'Sir John Eccles: Odyssey of a Nobel Prize Winner', Australasian Science, 20 (7) (1999), 46. Details
  • D'Alessandro, Deanna, 'An Australian chemist just won the Nobel prize. Here's how his work is changing the world', The Conversation (2025), https://doi.org/10.64628/AA.gngddnm37. Details
  • Geffen, Laurie and Spencer, Nick J., 'Early Australian neuroscientists and the tyranny of distance', Journal of the history of the neurosciences, 33 (1) (2024), 57-72. https://doi.org/10.1080/0964704X.2023.2232824. Details
  • Nicoll, R.A., 'John C. Eccles (1903-1997)', Science, 277 (1997), 194. Details
  • Penny, David, 'John Eccles and Karl Popper at the University of Otago, 1945', New Zealand Science Review, 69 (2012), 15-26. Details
  • Stuart, D. G., 'The Contributions of John Carew Eccles to Contemporary Neuroscience', Progress in Neurobiology, 78 (3-5) (2006), 135-326. Details

Resources

Resource Sections

See also

Gavan McCarthy

Created: 20 October 1993, Last modified: 22 October 2025

EOAS ID: biogs/P000382b.htm

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