Georg von Békésy

Today is the birthday of biophysicist Georg von Békésy, born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1899. He studied chemistry at the University of Bern in Switzerland and earned his PhD in physics from the University of Budapest. The road to his 1961 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine began in the Hungarian Post Office, where he worked on improving the signal quality of long-distance telephone calls. That research led him to an interest in the mechanics of human hearing. Békésy found a way to dissect the inner ear of human cadavers while leaving intact the snail-shaped sensory organ called the cochlea. He was able to track the movement of sound along the basilar membrane and found that different parts of the cochlea picked up on different frequencies of sound. Békésy’s mechanical models of the inner ear helped scientists better understand the auditory system and hearing disorders. Throughout his life Békésy amassed an impressive collection of paintings, sculptures, and artifacts that he donated to the Nobel Foundation upon his death in 1972.

Date in History: 3 June 1899