Bertil Hille

Bertil Hille (born October 10, 1940) is an Emeritus Professor, and the Wayne E. Crill Endowed Professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Washington. He is known for his research on cell signalling by ion channels. His book Ion Channels of Excitable Membranes has been the standard work on the subject, appearing in multiple editions since its first publication in 1984.

Hille received his B.S. summa cum laude in Zoology from Yale University (1962) and his Ph.D. in Life Sciences from The Rockefeller University (1967). During his PhD, Hille started his long-term collaboration with Clay Armstrong, who he shared many awards with several decades later. After completing his Ph.D, Hille did postdoc research with Sir Alan L. Hodgkin (1963 Nobel laureate for the basis of nerve action potentials) and Richard Keynes at the University of Cambridge, England.

Career In 1968 Hille joined the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Washington's School of Medicine. In 2005, he was named the Wayne E. Crill Endowed Professor. On July 1, 2021, he became a professor emeritus.

Personal life Bertil Hille is married to Merrill Burr Hille, Professor Emerita of Biology at the University of Washington, and has two sons. He showed that Na+ and K+ channels of axons could be distinguished by drugs such as tetrodotoxin and tetraethylammonium ion, and that their ionic selectivity can be understood by limiting pore size, the selectivity filter, and by movements of ions through a series of saturable sites. He showed that local anesthetics enter Na+ channels in a state-dependent manner. defining the modern era of ion channel studies. The book is known for its clarity of language, its ability to communicate to both the beginner and the specialist, its attention to research history, and the breadth and depth of its scientific coverage. 1990 - Bristol-Myers Squibb Award 1996 - Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize at Columbia University (with Clay Armstrong) 1998 - Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 1999 - Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research (with Rod MacKinnon and Clay Armstrong) 2001 Gairdner Foundation International Award (with Armstrong and MacKinnon), "For the elucidation of the mechanism of action and molecular structure of cation channels". 2002 - Elected to the Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine) 2008 - Doctorate of Science honoris causa, The Rockefeller University 2009 - Bard Lecture, Johns Hopkins University 2018 - Distinguished Science in Medicine Lecture, University of Washington School of Medicine