Edgar Adrian, 1st Baron Adrian
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The Right Honourable The Lord Adrian OM PRS |
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| President of the Royal Society | |
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In office 1950–1955 |
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| Preceded by | Sir Robert Robinson |
| Succeeded by | Sir Cyril Norman Hinshelwood |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
30 November 1889 Hampstead, London, England |
| Died | 4 August 1977 (aged 87) Cambridge, Cambridgeshire |
| Nationality | United Kingdom |
| Spouse(s) | Hester Adrian (m. 1923) |
| Children |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Biology (electrophysiology) |
| Alma mater | University of Cambridge |
| Notable awards |
Fellow of the Royal Society Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1932 Royal Medal (1934) Copley Medal (1946) Albert Medal (1953) |
Edgar Douglas Adrian, 1st Baron Adrian OM PRS (30 November 1889 – 4 August 1977) was an English electrophysiologist and recipient of the 1932 Nobel Prize for Physiology, won jointly with Sir Charles Sherrington for work on the function of neurons. He provided experimental evidence for the all-or-none law of nerves.
Adrian was born at Hampstead, London, to Alfred Douglas Adrian, legal adviser to the Local Government Board, and Flora Lavinia Barton. He attended Westminster School and studied Natural Sciences at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating in 1911 and in 1913, he was elected to a Fellowship of Trinity College on account of his research into the "all or none" law of nerves.
After completing a medical degree in 1915, he did clinical work at St Bartholomew's Hospital London during World War I, treating soldiers with nerve damage and nervous disorders such as shell shock. Adrian returned to Cambridge as a lecturer and in 1925 began research on the human sensory organs by electrical methods.
Adrian married Hester Agnes Pinsent on 14 June 1923 and they had three offspring – a daughter and mixed twins:
Continuing earlier studies of Keith Lucas, he used a capillary electrometer and cathode ray tube to amplify the signals produced by the nervous system and was able to record the electrical discharge of single nerve fibres under physical stimulus. An accidental discovery by Adrian in 1928 proved the presence of electricity within nerve cells. Adrian said,
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