Editing John Eccles (neurophysiologist) (section)

==Life and work==

===Early life===
Eccles was born in [[Melbourne]], Australia. He grew up there with his two sisters and his parents: William and Mary Carew Eccles (both teachers, who [[home schooled]] him until he was 12).<ref name="SirBio">{{cite book |last1= McGrath |first1= K. A. |title= World of Anatomy and Physiology |url= https://archive.org/details/worldofanatomyph0000unse |date= July 2005 |publisher= Gale |isbn= 978-0-7876-5684-3 |chapter= John C. Eccles, Sir |chapter-url= http://www.bookrags.com/biography/john-c-eccles-sir-wap/ |url-access= registration }}
</ref> He initially attended Warrnambool High School<ref name=AAS>{{cite web |url= https://www.science.org.au/fellowship/fellows/biographical-memoirs/john-carew-eccles-1903-1997 |work=Biographical memoirs |title= John Carew Eccles 1903–1997 |publisher=[[Australian Academy of Science]] |author1=  David R. Curtis |author2= Per Andersen }} originally published in ''Historical Records of Australian Science'', vol.13, no.4, 2001.</ref> (now [[Warrnambool College]]) (where a science wing is named in his honour), then completed his final year of schooling at [[Melbourne High School (Victoria)|Melbourne High School]]. Aged 17, he was awarded a senior scholarship to study medicine at the [[University of Melbourne]].<ref name=AAS/> As a medical undergraduate, he was never able to find a satisfactory explanation for the interaction of mind and body; he started to think about becoming a neuroscientist. He graduated (with first class honours) in 1925,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://biotechnology-innovation.com.au/scientists/john_eccles.html|title=Sir John Carew Eccles|quote=As a medical student he was greatly influenced by [[Charles Darwin]]'s ''[[Origin of Species]]''|publisher=Biotecnology-innovation.com.au|access-date=26 June 2015|archive-date=4 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150304101256/http://biotechnology-innovation.com.au/scientists/john_eccles.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> and was awarded a [[Rhodes Scholarship]] to study under [[Charles Scott Sherrington]] at [[Magdalen College, Oxford|Magdalen College]], [[University of Oxford|Oxford University]], where he received his Doctor of Philosophy in 1929.

In 1937 Eccles returned to Australia, where he worked on military research during [[World War II]]. During this time, Eccles was the director of the Kanematsu Institute at [[Sydney Medical School]],<ref>[http://sydney.edu.au/medicine/research/units/kanematsu.php] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141110050316/http://sydney.edu.au/medicine/research/units/kanematsu.php|date=10 November 2014}}</ref> where he and [[Bernard Katz]] gave research lectures at the [[University of Sydney]], strongly influencing the intellectual environment of the university.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/australias-nobel-laureates |title=Australia's Nobel Laureates |publisher=Australia.gov.au |access-date=26 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140814115156/http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/australias-nobel-laureates |archive-date=14 August 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref> After the war, he became a professor at the [[University of Otago]] in New Zealand. From 1952 to 1962, he worked as a professor at the [[John Curtin School of Medical Research]] (JCSMR) of the [[Australian National University]]. From 1966 to 1968, Eccles worked at the [[Feinberg School of Medicine]] at [[Northwestern University]] in [[Chicago]].<ref name="FSM-2023" />

===Career===
{{unreferenced section|date=August 2023}}
In the early 1950s, Eccles and his colleagues performed the research that would lead to his receiving the Nobel Prize. To study synapses in the peripheral nervous system, Eccles and colleagues used the stretch reflex as a model, which is easily studied because it consists of only two [[neuron]]es: a sensory neurone (the [[muscle spindle]] fibre) and the [[motor neuron]]e. The sensory neurone synapses onto the motor neurone in the [[spinal cord]]. When a current is passed into the sensory neurone in the [[quadriceps]], the motor neurone innervating the quadriceps produced a small [[excitatory postsynaptic potential]] (EPSP). When a similar current is passed through the [[hamstring]], the opposing muscle to the quadriceps, an [[inhibitory postsynaptic potential]] (IPSP) is produced in the quadriceps motor neurone. Although a single EPSP was not enough to fire an [[action potential]] in the motor neurone, the sum of several EPSPs from multiple sensory neurones synapsing onto the motor neurone can cause the motor neurone to fire, thus contracting the quadriceps. On the other hand, IPSPs could subtract from this sum of EPSPs, preventing the motor neurone from firing.

Apart from these seminal experiments, Eccles was key to a number of important developments in [[neuroscience]]. Until around 1949, Eccles believed that [[synaptic transmission]] was primarily electrical rather than chemical. Although he was wrong in this hypothesis, his arguments led him and others to perform some of the experiments which proved chemical synaptic transmission. [[Bernard Katz]] and Eccles worked together on some of the experiments which elucidated the role of [[acetylcholine]] as a [[neurotransmitter]] in the brain.

===Honours===
He was appointed a [[Knight Bachelor]] in 1958 in recognition of services to physiological research.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/1083462 |title= It's an Honour |publisher= [[Australian Government]] |quote= Award: Knight Bachelor |date= 12 June 1958|access-date=26 June 2015 }}</ref>

He won the [[Australian of the Year]] Award in 1963,<ref>{{cite book | author=Lewis, Wendy | title=Australians of the Year | publisher=Pier 9 Press | year=2010 | isbn=978-1-74196-809-5 | author-link=Wendy Lewis }}</ref> the same year he won the Nobel Prize.<ref name="FSM-2023" />

In 1964, he became an honorary member to the [[American Philosophical Society]], and in 1966 he moved to the United States to work as a professor at the Institute for Biomedical Research at the [[Feinberg School of Medicine]] in Chicago.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.riaus.org.au/science/people/healthcare_medicine/john_eccles.jsp |title= Nobel Prize winning pioneer in neurophysiology research |publisher= Ri Aus |quote= Eccles was interested in developing a philosophy of the human person that fitted with brain science |access-date= 26 June 2015 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110221002302/http://www.riaus.org.au/science/people/healthcare_medicine/john_eccles.jsp |archive-date= 21 February 2011 |url-status= dead }}</ref><ref name="FSM-2023">{{cite web |author=Staff |title=Feinberg School of Medicine - Nobel Laureates - John Eccles, awarded 1963 |url=https://www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/about/notable/nobel-laureates.html |date=2023 |work=[[Feinberg School of Medicine]] |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230319155821/https://www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/about/notable/nobel-laureates.html<!---https://archive.today/wip/w6Ok7---> |archivedate=19 March 2023 |accessdate=19 March 2023 }}</ref> Unhappy with the working conditions there, he left to become a professor at [[University at Buffalo|The State University of New York at Buffalo]] from 1968 until he retired in 1975. After retirement, he moved to Switzerland and wrote on the [[mind–body problem]].

In 1981, Eccles became a founding member of the [[World Cultural Council]].<ref>{{cite web | title = About Us | publisher = [[World Cultural Council]] | url = http://www.consejoculturalmundial.org/about-us/ | access-date = 8 November 2016}}</ref>

In 1990 he was appointed a [[List of Companions of the Order of Australia|Companion]] of the [[Order of Australia]] (AC) in recognition of service to science, particularly in the field of neurophysiology.<ref name=AC>{{cite web |url=https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/883430 |title= Companion of the Order of Australia |quote= In recognition of service to science, particularly in the field of neurophysiology |website=It's an Honour |publisher= Itsanhonour.gov.au |date= 26 January 1990 |access-date=26 June 2015}}</ref> He died at the age of 94 in 1997 in [[Tenero-Contra]], [[Locarno]], Switzerland.<ref name="SirBio"/>

In March 2012, the Eccles Institute of Neuroscience was constructed in a new wing of the [[John Curtin School of Medical Research]], with the assistance of a $63M grant from the Commonwealth Government. In 2021, a new $60M animal research building was opened at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand, and named the Eccles Building.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.otago.ac.nz/otagomagazine/issue50/regulars/addendum/ | title=Addendum | date=21 April 2020 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.otago.ac.nz/campus-development/projects/recent/otago833056.html | title=Eccles Building | date=23 September 2021 }}</ref>

[[Image:Eccles and Hoschl.jpg|300px|right|thumb|John Carew Eccles (right) with Czech psychiatrist [[Cyril Höschl]] (left) in 1993]]