Hallowell Davis

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Hallowell Davis (born August 31, 1896 in New York City , † August 22, 1992 in St. Louis ) was an American physiologist and audiologist . He was a professor at Harvard University and later director of the Central Institute for the Deaf in St. Louis.

Life

Davis studied at Harvard University with a bachelor's degree in 1918 and at Harvard Medical School with an MD in 1922. As a post-doctoral student , he spent a year in Cambridge with Edgar Adrian, where he learned electrophysiology techniques. On his return he became a tutor at Harvard in 1925 (preparation for medical school) and in 1927 an assistant professor and later an associate professor. He headed the psychoacoustic laboratory, where he studied signal processing in the inner ear using electrophysiological methods (nerve impulses in the cochlear nerve). In doing so, he also developed diagnostic methods for hearing loss in small children based on this. Many of the children who were classed as learning disabilities in school were found to have hearing problems, thanks in part to Davis's new methods. He is said to have introduced the word audiology at that time. In the 1930s he was also an EEG pioneer and the first EEG in the USA is said to have been made by his students himself. In 1946 he moved to the Central Institute for the Deaf in St. Louis and was also a professor at the Washington University School of Medicine. There he initially developed hearing aids for war veterans. In 1965 he retired, but continued to work as a senior scientist for twenty years.

In 1975 he received the National Medal of Science . He also received the Gold Medal from the Acoustical Society of America and the Gold Medal Award of Merit from the American Otological Society. He received multiple honorary doctorates and was a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1948), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society . In 1949 he was president of the American Encephalographic Society, 1953 of the Acoustical Society of America and 1958 of the American Physiological Society.

Fonts

  • with S. Stevens: Hearing: Its Psychology and Physiology, Wiley 1938
  • mt S. Richard Silverman (Ed.), Hearing and Deafness: A Guide for the Layman, Murray Hill Books 1947

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Obituary in the New York Times 1992
personal data
SURNAME Davis, Hallowell
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American physiologist and audiologist
DATE OF BIRTH August 31, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH 22nd August 1992
Place of death St. Louis