Record

Authorised form of namePhillips; Charles Garrett (1916 - 1994); neurophysiologist
Dates1916 - 1994
NationalityBritish
Place of birthLondon, England, United Kingdom
Date of birth13 October 1916
Place of deathOxford, Oxfordshire, England, United Kingdom
Date of death09 September 1994
OccupationNeurophysiologist
Research fieldNeuroanatomy
Anatomy
Physiology
Neurophysiology
ActivityEducation:
Bigshotte School, Wokingham 1926–30; Bradfield College, Berkshire 1930–35; Magdalen College, Oxford 1935–9; BM BCh (Oxon.) 1942
Career:
Called up into the army and worked in Military Hospital for Head Injuries, which was set up in St Hugh's College, Oxford (1943-1945); returned to academia after the end of the war and became fellow and medical tutor of Trinity College (1946-66); promoted to a personal professorship in neurophysiology (1966-75); secretary of the Physiological Society (1960-66); editor-in-chief of Brain (1975-81); Dr Lee's professor of anatomy (1975-83).
Memberships:
Medical Research Council 1980-84
Membership categoryFellow
Date of election21/03/1963
Age at election46
ProposerGeoffrey Wingfield Harris
Ivan de Burgh Daly
Ernest Basil Verney
Andrew Fielding Huxley
William Drummond Macdonald Paton
John Zachary Young
Adrian
Richard Darwin Keynes
David Whitteridge
Edward George Tandy Liddell
John Carew Eccles
RSActivityLectures:
Ferrier 1968
RelationshipsParents: George Ramsay Phillips (1880–1953), anaesthetist, and Flora, née Green (1886–1956), nurse.
Spouse: (m. 5 June 1942) Cynthia Mary Broster (b. 1919), daughter of Lennox Ross Broster, surgeon at Charing Cross Hospital, London.
Children: Catherine (b. 1945) and Helen (b. 1946).
PublishedWorksRCN 20110
RCN 11231
OtherInfoDistinguished for research on the physiology of the nervous system, particularly in relation to the control of muscular contraction. His first investigations in this field were on the pyramidal tract and on the motor cortex.
Studied the cells of origin of the tract with superb intracellular technique, so providing the definitive descriptions of the electrical responses of cortical pyramidal cells.
His investigations on the electrical responses of individual nerve cells in the cerebellum are an important contribution to cerebellar physiology.
Investigated the control of movement at lower levels, with precise studies both of the many factors causing motor nerve cell discharge and of the muscle contractions so produced.
Royal Society Obituary or MemoirClick to view (may be contained within a meeting notice, presidential address or list of death notices)
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SourceObituaries:
Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 1996 vol 42 pp 339-362, plate, by Robert Porter
CodeNA2110
Archives associated with this Fellow
RefNoTitleDate
GLB/19/1/34Charles Phillips, Chadlington Road, Oxford to Brown3 February 1960
GLB/65/100/7C G Phillips to Secretary, Medical School, Osler House, Oxford to 16 February 1966
GLB/65/91/86Brown to Charles Phillips, University Laboratory of Physiology, Oxford 7 December 1970
GLB/65/91/85Charles Phillips, University Laboratory of Physiology, Oxford to Brown2 December 1970
HWT/25/10/2Correspondence and papers regarding visit of Royal Society delegation to ChinaNovember - December 1973
EC/1963/19Phillips, Charles Garrett: certificate of election to the Royal Society
HD/25/23Photograph of guests at dinner in honour of 90th birthday of Henry Dale11 June 1965
IM/GA/WRS/9592Phillips, Charles Garrettnd
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