A. V. Hill (September 26, 1886 - June 3,1977) was an English physiologist, one of the founders of the diverse disciplines of biophysics and operations research. His early work involved the characterization of what came to be known as Michaelis-Menten kinetics and the use of the Hill coefficient. His first paper is a landmark in the history of receptor theory. He made many exacting measurements of the physics of nerves and muscles. He is regarded, along with Hermann Helmholtz, as one of the founders of biophysics. He elucidated the processes whereby mechanical work is produced in muscles and shared the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine with Otto Meyerhof. In 1923 he became professor of physiology at University College, London, a post he held until his retirement in 1951. World War II saw the beginning of Hill's extensive public service. In 1933, he helped found the Academic Assistance Council (which became the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning in 1936) an organization that saved 900 academics (18 of whom went on to win Nobel Prizes) from the Nazi persecution. He continued work as an active researcher until 1966. He died in 1977 at the age of 90.