Hill, Archibald Vivian (1886–1977)

English physiologist who was awarded a Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1922 for work on the production of heat in contracting muscle.

Hill was born in Bristol and educated at Cambridge. He was professor at Manchester 1920–23 and at the Royal Society 1923–51. He also served as scientific adviser to India 1943–44 and was a member of the War Cabinet Scientific Advisory Committee during World War II.

To record minute heat changes, Hill modified delicate thermocouples, and discovered by 1913 that contracting muscle fibres produce heat in two phases. Heat is first produced quickly as the muscle contracts. Then, after the initial contraction, further heat is evolved more slowly but often in greater amounts. Hill also showed that molecular oxygen is consumed after the work of the muscles is over but not during muscular contraction.