Three decades after he began research to help the deaf hear, Duke professor Blake Wilson has been awarded the nation's top prize for bioengineering.
Wilson is the winner of the 2015 Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ Prize for his work with cochlear implants, the National Academy of Engineering announced Wednesday.
Wilson—adjunct professor in biomedical engineering, electrical and computer engineering and surgery, as well as co-director of the Duke Hearing Center—received the prize in conjunction with four others who helped to pioneer cochlear implants. The Russ Prize was established in 1999, and is considered the top honor in the field of bioengineering with a $500,000 award to its recipients.
“I am thrilled to receive with my esteemed colleagues this singular honor,” said Wilson in a release. “We all stood on the broad shoulders of great scientists, engineers and physicians who preceded us in our work, and we all were helped mightily by our coworkers. I am so very grateful for the spectacular education I received at Duke, which enabled me to do something special later in life, and for the partnership of my many magnificent colleagues at Duke and elsewhere who made our shared achievements possible. I am lucky and grateful.”
The cochlear implant technique, according to the National Institute of Health, has been performed on 320,000 people worldwide. The implant uses electrical signals to help the brain interpret sounds and stimulate auditory nerves, enabling people who are deaf or suffering from hearing loss to hear.
“Blake’s receipt of the Russ Prize is yet another example of the significant impact of his achievements in improving the quality of life for individuals all around the world, and importantly, demonstrates the enormous power achieved when the worlds of engineering and medicine intersect,” Dr. Nancy Andrews, dean of the Duke School of Medicine, said in a release.
Wilson's personal contributions to developing cochlear implant began in the 1980s when he created a model that made implant patients understand words with greater clarity. His work is essential to the wide success of today's cochlear implant surgeries, and made it possible for implant recipients to communicate with others in a quiet environment.
“Blake Wilson has made seminal contributions to developing one of the greatest advances of modern medicine,” Tom Katsouleas, dean of the Pratt School of Engineering, said in a news release. “Bringing a person from total or nearly complete deafness to highly useful hearing is a stunning achievement that many thought would be impossible. The work of Blake and his collaborators is a shining example of the power of engineering to address some of humanity’s grandest challenges, and we are exceptionally proud to count him as an alumnus and colleague.”
Wilson will be a featured speaker at the Duke Engineering 75th Anniversary Lecture in March. His talk will give an overview on the development of the modern cochlear implant.
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