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Georg von Békésy (Békésy György) (June 3, 1899 – June 13, 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.

Research

Békésy developed a method for dissecting the inner ear of human cadavers while leaving the cochlea partly intact. By using strobe photography and silver flakes as a marker, he was able to observe that the basilar membrane moves like a surface wave when stimulated by sound. Because of the structure of the cochlea and the basilar membrane, different frequencies of sound cause the maximum amplitudes of the waves to occur at different places on the basilar membrane along the coil of the cochlea.^[1]

He concluded that his observations showed how different sound wave frequencies are locally dispersed before exciting different nerve fibers that lead from the cochlea to the brain. He theorized that the placement of each sensory cell (hair cell) along the coil of the cochlea corresponds to a specific frequency of sound (the so-called tonotopy). Békésy later developed a mechanical model of the cochlea, which confirmed the concept of frequency dispersion by the basilar membrane in the mammalian cochlea. But this model could not provide any information as to a possible function of this frequency dispersion in the process of hearing.^[1]

In a posthumous 1974 article looking back over progress in the field, he remarked "In time, I came to the conclusion that the dehydrated cats and the application of Fourier analysis to hearing problems became more and more a handicap for research in hearing,"^[2] referring to the difficulties in getting animal preparations to behave as when alive, and the misleading common interpretations of Fourier analysis in hearing research.

Biography

Békésy was born on June 3, 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 (1879–1974) born in Cadavica, Slavonia, Kingdom of Hungary. 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.

In 1947, he moved to the United States, working at Harvard University until 1966. After his lab was destroyed by fire in 1965, he was offered to lead a research laboratory of sense organs in Honolulu, Hawaii. He became a professor at the University of Hawaii in 1966 and died in Honolulu.

His honours include:

The Denker Prize in Otology (1931), The Leibnitz Medal of the Berlin Academy of Sciences (1937), The Guyot Prize for Speech and Otology of Groningen University (1939), The Academy Award of the Budapest Academy of Science (1946), Shambough Prize in Otology (1950).

Honorary doctorates (M.D.) were conferred on him by the University of Munster (1955), Bern (1959), Padua (1962), Buenos Aires (1968), Cordoba (1968), Hawaii (1969) and Semmelweiss University, Budapest (1969).

He became a well-known expert in Asian art. He had a large collection which he donated to the Nobel Foundation in Sweden. His brother Dr Miklós Békésy (born 1903) stayed in Hungary and became a famous agro-biologist awarded the Kossuth Prize.

References

Further reading

• Czeizel, Andrew E (2004), "Famous Hungarian physicians", The Lancet 364 (9434): 581–2, doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(04)16847-5, PMID 15195664 
• Evans, Rand B (2003), "Georg von Békésy: visualization of hearing", American Psychologist 58 (9): 742–6, 2003 Sep, doi:10.1037/0003-066X.58.9.742, PMID 14584991 
• Raju, T N (1999), "The Nobel chronicles. 1961: Georg von Békésy (1899-1972)", Lancet 354 (9172): 80, 1999 Jul 3, doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(05)75353-8, PMID 10406402 
• Shampo, M A; Kyle, R A (1993), "Georg von Békésy--audiology and the cochlea", Mayo Clin. Proc. 68 (7): 706, 1993 Jul, PMID 8350644 
• Tonndorf, J (1986), "Georg von Békésy and his work", Hear. Res. 22: 3–10, doi:10.1016/0378-5955(86)90067-5, PMID 3525485 
• Bernhard, C G (1986), "Georg von Békésy and the Karolinska Institute", Hear. Res. 22: 13–7, doi:10.1016/0378-5955(86)90069-9, PMID 3525483 
• "Proceedings of Nobel Symposium 63. Cellular mechanisms in hearing (en hommage à Georg von Békésy). Karlskoga, 2–6 September 1985", Hear. Res. 22: 1–326, 1986, PMID 3525481 
• Tonndorf, J (1974), "In memoriam Georg von Békésy 1899-1972", J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 55 (3): 576–7, 1974 Mar, Bibcode 1974ASAJ...55..576T, doi:10.1121/1.1914566, PMID 4594785 
• Glorig, A (1973), "Georg von Békésy 1899-1972", Audiology 12 (5): 540–1, doi:10.3109/00206097309071667, PMID 4582926 
• Keidel, W D (1973), "In memorian Professor Dr. phil. Dr. med. h.c. Georg v. Békésy", Kybernetik 12 (2): 116–8, 1973 Feb, doi:10.1007/BF00272468, PMID 4571620 
• Ratliff, F (1973), "Georg von Békésy", Experimental brain research. Experimentelle Hirnforschung. Expérimentation cérébrale 16 (3): 219–20, 1973 Jan 29, PMID 4568685 
• Keidel, W D (1973), "[In memoriam Professor Dr.phil.Dr.med.h.c. Georg von Békésy]", Zeitschrift für Laryngologie, Rhinologie, Otologie und ihre Grenzgebiete 52 (1): 1–6, 1973 Jan, PMID 4567951 
• Davis, H (1972), "Georg von Békésy, 1899-1972", Ann. Otol. Rhinol. Laryngol. 81 (5): 750–1, 1972 Oct, PMID 4568444 
• Zwislocki, J J (1972), "Georg von Békésy, 1899-1972", J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 52 (4): 1094–5, 1972 Oct, PMID 4563147 
• "Georg von Beksey", ASHA 14 (9): 513, Sep 1972, 1972 Sep, ISSN 0001-2475, PMID 4560564 
• Tonndorf, J (1972), "[Obituary for Georg von Békésy (1899-1972)]", Archiv für klinische und experimentelle Ohren- Nasen- und Kehlkopfheilkunde 203 (1): 81–5, doi:10.1007/BF00344566, PMID 4564741 
• "The American Speech and Hearing Association presents the honors of the Association", ASHA 9 (6): 222, 1967, 1967 Jun, PMID 5343023 
• BERNHARD, C G (1962), "Presentation of the Nobel prize for physiology or medicine (1961) to George von BEKESY", Transactions of the American Otological Society 50: 332–6, PMID 13971073 
• KEIDEL, W D (1961), "[G. von BEKESY Nobel prize winner 1961.]", Zeitschrift für Laryngologie, Rhinologie, Otologie und ihre Grenzgebiete 40: 885–8, 1961 Dec, PMID 14037041 
• PALVA, T (1961), "[The 1961 Nobel prize in medical science and physiology (Georg von BEKESY).]", Duodecim; lääketieteellinen aikakauskirja 77: 791–2, PMID 14037251 

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Georg von Békésy

• Nobel Prize Biography
• Georg von Békésy page at the Pacific Biosciences Research Center
• Békésy Laboratory of Neurobiology website
• Békésy art collection
• My experiences in different laboratories, autobiographical speech by von Békésy
• The Ear Pages game

v · d · eHungarian or Hungarian-Born Nobel Laureates       Lénárd Fülöp (1905) · Bárány Róbert (1914) · Zsigmondy Richárd (1925) · Szent-Györgyi Albert (1937) · Hevesy György (1943) · Békésy György (1961) · Wigner Jenő (1963) · Gábor Dénes (1971) · Polányi János (1986) · Harsányi János (1994) · Oláh György (1994) · Kertész Imre (2002) · Avram Hershko (2004)