Archibald Hill

Archibald Vivian Hill
Born	(1886-09-26)26 September 1886 Bristol, England
Died	Cambridge, England
Nationality	United Kingdom
Fields	Physiology and biophysics
Institutions	Cambridge University University of Manchester University College, London
Alma mater	Cambridge University
Academic advisors	Walter Morley Fletcher
Notable students	Bernard C. Abbott Te-Pei Feng Ralph H. Fowler Bernard Katz
Known for	Mechanical work in muscles Muscle contraction model Founding biophysics Hill equation (biochemistry)
Notable awards	Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1922) Royal Medal (1926) Copley Medal (1948)
Notes
He is notably the father of Polly Hill, David Keynes Hill, Maurice Hill, and the grandfather of Nicholas Humphrey.

Archibald Vivian Hill, CH, OBE, FRS (26 September 1886 – 3 June 1977), known as A. V. Hill, was an English physiologist, one of the founders of the diverse disciplines of biophysics and operations research. He shared the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his elucidation of the production of heat and mechanical work in muscles.

Biography

Born in Bristol, he was educated at Blundell's School and graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge as third wrangler in the mathematics tripos before turning to physiology. His early work involved the characterisation of what came to be known as Michaelis-Menten kinetics and the use of the Hill coefficient. Hill's first paper, published in 1909 while working under the supervision of John Newport Langley, is a landmark in the history of receptor theory.

Hill made many exacting measurements of the physics of nerves and muscles. His earliest experiments on the heat production of contracting muscles used equipment obtained from the Swedish physiologist Magnus Blix. Both before and after World War I he worked on a range of topics in physiology in co-operation with colleagues in Cambridge, Germany and elsewhere.

Hill is regarded, along with Hermann Helmholtz, as one of the founders of biophysics.

In 1914, at the outbreak of World War I, Hill joined the British army and assembled a team working on ballistics and operations research. The team included many notable physicists including Ralph H. Fowler, Douglas Hartree and Arthur Milne.

Hill returned to Cambridge in 1919 before taking the chair in physiology at the Victoria University of Manchester in 1920 in succession to William Stirling. Parallelling the work of German Otto Fritz Meyerhof, Hill elucidated the processes whereby mechanical work is produced in muscles. The two shared the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for this work.

In 1923 he succeeded Ernest Starling as professor of physiology at University College, London, a post he held until his retirement in 1951. He used to keep a toy figure of Adolf Hitler with a movable saluting arm, in gratitude for all the scientists Germany had expelled and who were now working with him.

He was President of the Marine Biological Association from 1955 to 1960. He continued work as an active researcher until 1966.

World War II saw the beginning of Hill's extensive public service. Already in 1935 he was working with Patrick Blackett and Sir Henry Tizard on the committee that gave birth to Radar. In 1933, he became with Lord Beveridge and Lord Rutherford a founder member and vice-president of the Academic Assistance Council (which became the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning in 1936). By the start of the Second World War, the organisation had saved 900 academics (18 of whom went on to win Nobel Prizes) from the Nazi persecution. He served as an independent Member of Parliament (MP) for Cambridge University from 1940 to 1945. He took part in many scientific missions to the US.

Personal life

In 1913 he married Margaret Keynes (1885-1974), daughter of the economist John Neville Keynes, and sister of the economist John Maynard Keynes and the surgeon Geoffrey Keynes. They had two sons and two daughters:

• Polly Hill (1914–2005), economist, married K.A.C. Humphreys, registrar of the West African Examinations Council.
• David Keynes Hill (1915–2002), physiologist
• Maurice Hill (1919–1966), oceanographer
• Janet Hill (1918–2000) child psychiatrist, married the immunologist John Herbert Humphrey.

Honours and awards

• Officer of the Order of the British Empire (1918)
• Fellow of the Royal Society (1918)
• Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1922)
• In 1926 he was invited to deliver the Royal Institution Christmas Lecture on Nerves and Muscles: How We Feel and Move.
• Companion of Honour (1946)
• Copley Medal of the Royal Society (1948)
• President of the British Association (1952)

Blue plaque

On 9 September 2015 an English Heritage Blue plaque was erected at Hill's former home, 16 Bishopswood Road, Highgate, where he had lived from 1923-1967. Since then the house had been divided into flats and owned by Highgate School, where Hill was a Governor from 1929-1960. It has now been sold, redeveloped and renamed as Hurstbourne. In Hill's time, according to his grandson Nicholas Humphrey, regular guests at the house included 18 exiled Nobel laureates, his brother-in-law, the economist John Maynard Keynes, and friends Stephen Hawking and Sigmund Freud. After-dinner conversations in the drawing room would inevitably involve passionate debates about science or politics. “Every Sunday we would have to attend a tea party at grandpa’s house and apart from entertaining some extraordinary guests, he would devise some great games for us, such as frog racing in the garden or looking through the lens of a (dissected) sheep’s eye.” Sir Ralph Kohn FRS who proposed the Blue plaque, said: “The Nobel Prize winner A. V. Hill contributed vastly to our understanding of muscle physiology. His work has resulted in wide-ranging application in sports medicine. As an outstanding Humanitarian and Parliamentarian, he was uncompromising in his condemnation of the Nazi regime for its persecution of scientists and others. A. V. Hill played a crucial role in assisting and rescuing many refugees to continue their work in this country.”

Publications

By Hill:

• Hill, A.V. (1924–25). Textbook of Anti-Aircraft Gunnery, 2 vols
• - (1927a). Muscular Movement in Man
• - (1927b). Living Machinery
• - (1932) Chemical Wave Transmission in Nerve

Bibliography

• Nobel biography

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Sir Kenneth Pickthorn, Bt. Sir John James Withers	Member of Parliament for Cambridge University 1940 – 1945 With: Sir Kenneth Pickthorn, Bt.	Succeeded by Sir Kenneth Pickthorn, Bt. Wilson Harris