Russ award to be granted to five pioneers in cochlear implants

Five cochlear implant pioneers are to be awarded the 2015 Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ Prize from the National Academy of Engineering (USA) for their work that helped so many deaf people to hear.

Earlier in the month, the US National Academy of Engineering and Ohio University announced that five bioengineering researchers would be awarded the prize at a gala reception to be held at the Academy in Washington, D.C. on February 24, 2015.

The award aims to recognize engineering achievements in widespread use that have improved the human condition. This year, the recipients are Dr Ingeborg Hochmair-Desoyer and Dr Erwin Hochmair, cofounders of the Austrian company MED-EL, Professor Blake Wilson, researcher at Duke University and scientific consultant for MED-EL, Professor Graeme Clark, founder of Australia’s Cochlear Ltd. and researcher at the University of Melbourne, and Dr Michael Merzenich, designer of technologies used by the US company Advanced Bionics for their early implants.

According to MED-EL, “the lives of nearly 450,000 people of all ages around the world have been touched, and in many cases, transformed, because of the vision and work of many researchers, engineers and surgeons. The cochlear implant was, and remains, the first replacement of a human sense: the sense of hearing.”

The prize is awarded every two years with a USD 500,000 grant and was named after Ohio University alumnus Fritz Russ, an esteemed engineer and founder of Systems Research Laboratories, and his wife, Dolores.