Adrian, Edgar Douglas (1889-1977), 1st Baron Adrian, physiologist

Identity area

Type of entity

Person

Authorized form of name

Adrian, Edgar Douglas (1889-1977), 1st Baron Adrian, physiologist

Parallel form(s) of name

Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules

Other form(s) of name

Identifiers for corporate bodies

Description area

Dates of existence

1889-1977

History

Edgar Douglas Adrian was born on 30 November 1889, son of Alfred Douglas Adrian and his wife Flora, née Barton. He was educated at Westminster and admitted to Trinity College in 1908, becoming a Fellow in 1913 after studying Natural Sciences and Medicine. He finished his medical training at St Bartholemew’s Hospital and spent much of the war as a medical officer in Aldershot. Returning to Cambridge in 1919 he supervised Trinity Medical students and worked in the physiological laboratory. Later he became a Foulerton Research Professor of the Royal Society and in 1937 Professor of Physiology, a post he held until 1951.

Adrian’s mentor had been Keith Lucas, who died in the war, so Adrian first continued his studies, publishing a collection of Lucas’ lectures entitled ‘The Conduction of the Nervous Impulse’. Adrian then went on to undertake his pioneering work on the Central Nervous System that was to lead to the Nobel Prize in 1932.

Adrian was President of the Royal Society from 1950 to 1955 and became Master of Trinity in 1951 in succession to G M Trevelyan, holding the position until 1965. In 1955 he was elevated to the peerage. He died on 4 August 1977.

Places

Legal status

Functions, occupations and activities

Mandates/sources of authority

Internal structures/genealogy

General context

Relationships area

Related entity

Adrian, Dame Hester Agnes (1899-1966) mental health administrator and prison reformer (1899-1966)

Identifier of related entity

Category of relationship

family

Type of relationship

Adrian, Dame Hester Agnes (1899-1966) mental health administrator and prison reformer

is the spouse of

Adrian, Edgar Douglas (1889-1977), 1st Baron Adrian, physiologist

Dates of relationship

1923-1966

Description of relationship

Access points area

Subject access points

Place access points

Occupations

Control area

Authority record identifier

Institution identifier

Rules and/or conventions used

Status

Level of detail

Dates of creation, revision and deletion

Language(s)

Script(s)

Sources

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Maintenance notes

  • Clipboard

  • Export

  • EAC

Related subjects

Related places