Sir John Carew Eccles, 94, a neurophysiologist whose research on the basic functions of nerve cells won a Nobel prize in 1963, died May 2 in Switzerland, where he had lived for the past 22 years. Eccles, who directed the Center for the Study of Neurobiology at UB, retired from the university as emeritus professor in 1975.

Eccles shared the Nobel Prize with Alan Hodgkin and Andrew Huxley for work that showed how electrical impulses act across synapses, the junctions between nerve cells. His conclusions led to a better understanding of higher brain functions.

The New York Times noted May 4 that his career as researcher, teacher and author, which spanned more than half a century, "was spent at prestigious schools and institutes around the world including the American Medical Associa-tion's Institute for Biomedical Research in Chicago and the State University of New York at Buffalo."

Born in Melbourne, Australia, Eccles earned bachelor's and medical degrees from Melbourne University. He won a Rhodes scholarship to study at Oxford University, where he earned a master's and a doctorate. He conducted the research that led to the Nobel while at the John Curtin School of Medical Research of the Australian National University in Canberra in the 1950s. Eccles was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1958.

In 1966 he came to the U.S. to head the American Medical Asso-ciation's Institute for Biomedical Research in Chicago. Two years later, he moved to Buffalo to direct the Center for the Study of Neurobiology at UB. He was named SUNY Distinguished Professor in 1975.