Alan Hodgkin (1914-1998) and Andrew Huxley (1917-2012) published in 1952 a series of papers in The Journal of Physiology, which have revolutionised our understanding of neuronal function. They described in detail the conductances that underlie the action potential and proposed a model for its generation that still represents a gold standard of quantitative neuroscience. Our Symposium aims to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the award of the Nobel Prize to Hodgkin and Huxley, by highlighting arguably the most general and important implication of their work, the existence and function of ion channels.

This is an international meeting, open to delegates from Cambridge and elsewhere. Registration is heavily subsidised so that people working in neuroscience at all stages of their careers can benefit from the scientific interactions and lectures given by 25 speakers – 9 from the University of Cambridge, 6 based in the UK or other parts of Europe, and 10 from elsewhere in the world. Registration available at: http://www.neuroscience.cam.ac.uk/events/event.php?permalink=50903b958e#programme