Julian Jack

James Julian Bennett Jack FRS[4] (born 25 March 1936) is a New Zealand physiologist.[5]

Julian Jack FRS
Born	James Julian Bennett Jack (1936-03-25) 25 March 1936[1] Invercargill, New Zealand
Education	University of Otago (MMedSci, PhD) University of Oxford (BM, MA)
Awards	Rhodes Scholarship
Scientific career
Institutions	University of Oxford
Thesis	Inhibition and excitation in the mammalian spinal cord (1960)
Doctoral students	Michael Hausser[2] Dimitri Kullmann[3]

Education

Jack graduated from the University of Otago with a PhD in 1960.[1][6][7] After his PhD, Jack was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship in 1960 from Magdalen College, Oxford[8] where he was awarded Master of Arts and Bachelor of Medicine degrees in 1963.[1]

Career and research

Jack studies how nerve cells, or neurons, communicate with one another in the nervous system. He is also interested in understanding how chemical and electrical signals move through neural networks, such as the spinal cord or cerebral cortex.[4] Although neurons form large networks, these cells do not actually touch each other. Instead, when the end of a nerve is activated it releases ions or chemicals known as neurotransmitters.[4] Subsequently, these move across the gap, or synapse, between the neuron and the adjacent cell in the network, activating its receptors and perpetuating the signal.[4] Jack applies theoretical and experimental approaches to research this process of synaptic transmission.[4] This includes the use of neurophysiology methods to record bioelectrical activity and mathematical models to analyse the central and peripheral nervous systems. His work on neurotransmission is offering insight into disorders of the nervous system, such as Alzheimer’s disease and multiple sclerosis, and has the potential to improve their diagnosis.[4]

Jack was Lecturer and Reader at University Laboratory of Physiology at the University of Oxford.[9][6] His former doctoral students include Michael Hausser[2] and Dimitri Kullmann.[3]

Awards and honours

Jack was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1997.[4]

References

1. Anon (2015). "Jack, Prof. (James) Julian (Bennett)". Who's Who. ukwhoswho.com (online Oxford University Press ed.). A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.21612. (subscription or UK public library membership required) (subscription required)
2. Häusser, Michael (1992). Intrinsic properties and sympatic inhibition of substantia nigra neurones (DPhil thesis). University of Oxford. OCLC 62252234. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.306691.
3. Kullman, Dimitri Michael (1984). Central actions of muscle receptors. bodleian.ox.ac.uk (DPhil thesis). University of Oxford. OCLC 59330270. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.353099.
4. Anon (1997). "Professor Julian Jack FMedSci FRS". royalsociety.org. London: Royal Society. Archived from the original on 17 November 2015. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where:

   “All text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.” --Royal Society Terms, conditions and policies at the Wayback Machine (archived 2016-11-11)

5. The International Who's Who 2004, Europa Publication
6. Jack, Julian (1960). Inhibition and excitation in the mammalian spinal cord (PhD thesis). University of Otago. OCLC 429667593.
7. "Your Otago-Member Login - University of Otago". www.alumni.otago.ac.nz.
8. "NZ Rhodes Scholars 1903-1993". reocities.com. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016.
9. Electric current flow in excitable cells, James Julian Bennett Jack, Denis Noble, Richard W. Tsien, Clarendon Press, 1975, ISBN 978-0-19-857365-4

 This article incorporates text available under the CC BY 4.0 license.