John Zachary Young was born on 18 March 1907 in Bristol, England. A zoologist and neurophysiologist, his major achievement was the investigation of the cellular mechanisms of memory through experiments on octopuses. After completing his studies at Oxford, he held various positions, and in 1943, he became Vice-President of Magdalen College. During the Second World War, he was Leader of the Medical Research Council. In 1945, he was appointed Professor of Human Anatomy at University College London, retiring as Emeritus Professor.
Fellow of the Royal Society in 1945, he received eight honorary degrees and the Linnean Society Gold Medal in 1973. For twenty-one years, he was President and Vice-President of the Marine Biological Association of Great Britain. Young’s work made a lasting impression on his field, although his findings left even more complex questions concerning the problem of memory than it answered. He conducted his teaching and research with flair and enthusiasm, and his publications include The Life of Vertebrates (1950), The Life of Mammals (1957), Introduction to the Study of Man (1971), and Philosophy and the Brain (1987).
