David H. Hubel is a neurobiologist whose research into the relationships between the eye and the brain began at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. He later joined the research team at Johns Hopkins led by Stephen Kuffler, a neurophysiologist of vision. In Kuffler's laboratory, Hubel worked with Torsten Wiesel; their teamwork lasted over twenty years and led in 1981 to their sharing the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. The prize was awarded to them because they had discovered what role neurons played in the visual system and how the arrangement of cells operated in the visual process.

Born in Windsor, Ontario, of American parents, Elsie M. Hunter Hubel and Jesse H. Hubel, David Hunter Hubel grew up in Montreal. From his father, who was a chemical engineer, Hubel developed an interest in science, especially chemistry and electronics. In one particularly memorable childhood chemistry experiment, Hubel told...