biology

Stephen Kuffler

Stephen Kuffler is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Stephen Kuffler rather than just read about it. In short: Stephen William Kuffler (August 24, 1913 – October 11, 1980) was a Hungarian-American neurophysiologist. He is often referred to as the "Father of Modern Neuroscience".

Key takeaways

Stephen Kuffler belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Stephen Kuffler to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Stephen Kuffler from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Stephen William Kuffler (August 24, 1913 – October 11, 1980) was a Hungarian-American neurophysiologist. He is often referred to as the "Father of Modern Neuroscience". Kuffler, alongside noted Nobel Laureates Sir John Eccles and Sir Bernard Katz gave research lectures at the University of Sydney, strongly influencing its intellectual environment while working at Sydney Hospital. He founded the Harvard neurobiology department in 1966, and made numerous seminal contributions to our understanding of vision, neural coding, and the neural implementation of behavior. He is known for his research on neuromuscular junctions in frogs, presynaptic inhibition, and the neurotransmitter GABA. In 1972, he was awarded the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University.

Early life Stephen Kuffler was born on August 24, 1913, in Táp, a village in Hungary. His father, Wilhelm Kuffler, was a landowner living on a large estate. After his mother died when he was five years old, Steve was brought up by governesses at home until he went to a Jesuit boarding school in Austria at the age of ten, where he stayed until 1932

Honors and awards Kuffler was widely recognized as an original and creative neuroscientist. In addition to numerous prizes, honorary degrees, and special lectureships from countries over the world, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1960, National Academy of Sciences in 1964, the Royal Society as Foreign Member in 1971, and the American Philosophical Society in 1978. In 1964 he was named the Robert Winthrop professor of neurophysiology and neuropharmacology. From 1966 to 1974 he was the Robert Winthrop professor of neurobiology, and in 1974 he became John Franklin Enders university professor. A detailed, affectionate, and authoritative account of Stephen Kuffler's life and work has been provided by Sir Bernard Katz (Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, vol. 28, pp. 225–59, 1982) and in a book entitled Steve, Remembrances of Stephen W. Kuffler, compiled and introduced by U. J. McMahan (Sunderland, Mass.: Sinauer Associates, 1990). An account of Kuffler's work is given by Eric R. Kandel, In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind (New York: Norton, 2006), stating: 'I don't think anyone on the American scene since then has been as influential or as beloved as Steve Kuffler.'

See also Seymour Benzer David Hubel Eric R. Kandel David Rioch Gunther Stent Torsten Wiesel Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize

References

External links Biography by The Lancet Biographical article in the Journal of Neurology, 2016. Stephen W. Kuffler's biographical memoir at the National Academy of Sciences. The Official Site of Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Stephen Kuffler

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Stephen Kuffler claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Stephen Kuffler before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Stephen Kuffler ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Stephen Kuffler

In research: Stephen Kuffler appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Stephen Kuffler in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Stephen Kuffler is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1913 births, 1980 deaths, American neurologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Stephen Kuffler outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Stephen Kuffler in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Stephen Kuffler means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Stephen Kuffler out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Stephen Kuffler in simple terms?

Stephen William Kuffler (August 24, 1913 – October 11, 1980) was a Hungarian-American neurophysiologist. He is often referred to as the "Father of Modern Neuroscience".

Why does Stephen Kuffler matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Stephen Kuffler?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Stephen Kuffler.