Huxley, a grandson of T. H. Huxley, was born in London and graduated in 1938 from Cambridge University, receiving his MA there three years later. He is best known for his collaboration with Alan Hodgkin in elucidating the ‘sodium pump’ mechanism by which nerve impulses are transmitted, for which they were awarded, with John Eccles, the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine (1963). He also did important work on muscular contraction theory and was involved in the development of the interference microscope and ultramicrotome. Huxley was reader in experimental biophysics at Cambridge (1959–60), and from 1960 to 1969 was Jodrell Professor of Physiology at University College, London. In 1969 he was elected research professor becoming emeritus professor in 1983. In 1980 he succeeded Alexander Todd as president of the Royal Society, a position he held until 1985. He also served as master of Trinity College, Cambridge, from 1984 to 1990 and was knighted in 1974.