Geoffrey R. Ball

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Geoffrey R. Ball (* 1964 ) is an American physiologist (focus on biomechanics ) and inventor.

After studying Physiology at the University of Oregon and Systems Management at the University of Southern California, he co-founded Symphonix Devices Inc., a pioneering company in the development of middle ear implants that brought the Vibrant Soundbridge to the market . Ball has been the technical director (CTO) at VIBRANT MED-EL in Innsbruck (Austria) since 2003 .

Life

Geoffrey Ball suffered from sensorineural hearing loss after a severe fever in his childhood . In the course of time, this could no longer be corrected with conventional hearing aids . In his search for an alternative, he kept receiving the information as a teenager that active middle ear implants were only in the development stage.

After studying biomedicine, Ball worked for many years in the field of hearing research, with a focus on middle ear structures . The result of this work was the development of the Floating Mass Transducer (FMT), a tiny electromechanical transducer that was capable of transmitting vibrations to the ossicles . Based on the FMT, Ball developed the Vibrant Soundbridge, a middle ear implant that consists of an implantable part (VORP - Vibrating Ossicular Prosthesis) with the FMT and an externally worn audio processor. Geoffrey Ball himself was one of the first patients to be implanted with the Vibrant Soundbridge. Today he wears the implant on both sides. Several thousand people now have this implant.

Geoffrey Ball has lived near Innsbruck in Tyrol (Austria) since 2003.

In December 2011 Geoffrey R. Ball's autobiography was published under the title "... and I am listening! A technological adventure between Silicon Valley and the Alps" in the Austrian Haymon Verlag .

Patents

Geoffrey Ball has registered more than 80 US and international patents, primarily in the fields of hearing implants, neurostimulation, and other medical devices.

Awards

  • 1998 Silicon Valley Inventor of the Year
  • 1999 Engineer of the Year
  • 2001 Politzer Society Prize for RTF paper
  • 2002 2nd Annunzio Award in Science and Medicine

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from January 12, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. The book on Haymon publisher's website @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / haymonverlag.at
personal data
SURNAME Ball, Geoffrey R.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ball, Geoffrey
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American biomechanic
DATE OF BIRTH 1964