John Carew Eccles

Sir John Carew Eccles was born on January 27, 1903, in Melbourne. A Victorian Rhodes Scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford, he studied under legendary neurophysiologist Sir Charles Sherrington. Eccles returned to Australia, conducting groundbreaking research at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra from 1952 to 1966.

Using glass microelectrodes inserted into single motor neurons, Eccles demonstrated how neurotransmitters produce chemical postsynaptic potentials, proving that synaptic inhibition operates through hyperpolarization. For this breakthrough, he received the 1960 Nobel Prize with Alan Hodgkin and Andrew Huxley. Eccles was also a renowned philosopher of consciousness and mind-brain dualism.