Georg von Békésy
| Georg von Békésy | |
|---|---|
Békésy won a Nobel Prize in 1961
|
|
| Born |
3 June 1899 Budapest, Hungary |
| Died | 13 June 1972 (aged 73) Honolulu, Hawaii, United States |
| Nationality | Hungarian |
| Fields | Biophysics |
| Known for | Cochlea |
| Notable awards |
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1961) ASA Gold Medal (1961) |
Georg von Békésy (Békésy György) (3 June 1899 – 13 June 1972) was a Hungarian biophysicist born in Budapest, Hungary. In 1961, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his research on the function of the cochlea in the mammalian hearing organ.
Békésy was born on 3 June 1899 in Budapest, Hungary, the first of three children (György 1899, Lola 1901 and Miklós 1903) to Alexander von Békésy (1860–1923), an economic diplomat born in Kolozsvár, Transylvania, Kingdom of Hungary, and his wife Paula Mazaly (1877–1974) born in Cadavica, Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, Kingdom of Hungary. Paula's father went from Pécs to Cadavica and that's why she was born there. He went to school in Budapest, Munich, and Zürich. He studied chemistry in Bern and received his PhD in physics on the subject: "Fast way of determining molecular weight" from the University of Budapest in 1926. He then spent one year working in an engineering firm. He published his first paper on the pattern of vibrations of the inner ear in 1928. He was offered a position at Uppsala University by Róbert Bárány, which he dismissed because of the hard Swedish winters.
Before and during World War II, Békésy worked for the Hungarian Post Office (1923 to 1946), where he did research on telecommunications signal quality. This research led him to become interested in the workings of the ear. In 1946, he left Hungary to follow this line of research at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.
...
Wikipedia