Ingeborg Hochmair

Last updated

Ingeborg J. Hochmair-Desoyer
Ingeborg J. Hochmair-Desoyer.jpg
Born1953
Vienna, Austria
OccupationMED-EL
Spouse Erwin Hochmair
Awards Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award (2013)
Scientific career
Fields Electrical engineering
InstitutionsMED-EL

Ingeborg J. Hochmair-Desoyer (born 1953) is an Austrian electrical engineer and the CEO and CTO of hearing implant company MED-EL. [1] Dr Hochmair and her husband Prof. Erwin Hochmair co-created the first micro-electronic multi-channel cochlear implant in the world. [2] She received the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for her contributions towards the development of the modern cochlear implant. [3] She also received the 2015 Russ Prize for bioengineering. [4]

Contents

In 1989, she co-founded the medical device company MED-EL. [4]

Biography

Ingeborg Hochmair was born in 1953 in Vienna, Austria. [5] Her mother was a physicist and her father was dean of the faculty of mechanical engineering at Vienna University of Technology. [6] Her grandmother was one of the first female chemical engineers in Austria.

She commenced her studies at Technical University of Vienna in electrical engineering in 1971, and in 1975, she became the first woman in Austria to receive a PhD in electrical engineering. [7] Her dissertation was on the "Technical realization and psychoacoustic evaluation of a system for multichannel chronic stimulation of the auditory nerve." [8]

From 1976 to 1986, she worked as assistant professor at the Institute of General Electrical Engineering and Electronics at Technical University of Vienna. She also worked at Stanford University's Institute for Electronics in Medicine as a Visiting Associate Professor in 1979. [2] In 1986, she moved from Vienna to Innsbruck, where she taught (first as Assistant Professor and later as associate professor) at the Institute of Applied Physics Electronics of University of Innsbruck until 1989. In 1998 she achieved Venia Legendi (Univ. Doz.) in miomedical engineering at the faculty of electrical engineering of Technical University of Vienna. [2]

In 1989, Hochmair co-founded the hearing implant company MED-EL, along with husband Erwin Hochmair. [9] She remains CEO and CTO of the company. [4]

Outside of MED-EL, Hochmair continues to support research in the field of science and technology. In 2012, an endowed professorship in microelectronics and implantable systems was introduced at the University of Innsbruck's Institute for Mechatronics, supported by Hochmair. [10] The University of Innsbruck also offers Ingeborg Hochmair Professorships, an endowed professorship aimed at supporting female researchers in science and technology. [11]

Research & Other Work

In 1975, Ingeborg and Erwin Hochmair started the cochlear implant development at Technical University of Vienna with the overall goal of enabling the user not only to hear sounds but also to provide some speech understanding. Together they developed the world's first microelectronic multi-channel cochlear implant. This implant included a long, flexible electrode, which could, for the first time, deliver electric signals to the auditory nerve along a large part of the cochlea, the snail-shaped inner ear. [12] Previous cochlear implant designs provided single-channel stimulation.  The new multi-channel device was implanted in December 1977 in Vienna by Dr Kurt Burian. [13]

In 1979, a modified version of this first device allowed a woman to understand words and sentences without lip-reading in a quiet environment via a small, body-worn sound processor. This was a major milestone in the development of modern cochlear implants. [14] This device is the first to actually replace a human sense [15] Not only that, but it addresses hearing loss, which is number six on the list of the world's most significant disease burdens [16]

Through MED-EL, Hochmair has led many further advances in hearing implant research, including the introduction of a behind-the-ear audio processor in 1991, new sound coding strategies, and the development of single-unit audio processors. [17] A totally implantable cochlear implant is currently in development. [18]

Hochmair has over 40 patents to her name, all of which are for components of her cochlear implant. Many of the patents were updated or improved versions of older components for which she filed a new patent. A fairly comprehensive, but incomplete, list of her patents are as follows: [19]

Though she had a number of collaborators, [19] Hochmair contributed to all 36 of these patents in major ways, as the cochlear implant project was hers. As can be seen in the patent timeline above, she has continued to update and improve her device even this year. More than 400,000 people around the world were already using this device as of 2015. [20]

Publications

Ingeborg Hochmair has over 100 scientific publications in the field of Cochlear Implants, Medical Devices, Neuroprotheses, Audio & Speech Processing Technology. Among the most important ones are the following:

Awards and honours

Personal life

Hochmair is married to her husband and business partner, Erwin Hochmair. The couple have four children. [6]

References

  1. ↑ "ÖAW Mitglieder Detail". oeaw.ac.at. Archived from the original on 9 February 2023. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 "Dr. Ingeborg J. Hochmair-Desoyer". NAE Website. Archived from the original on 27 May 2022. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  3. ↑ Hofschneider, Mark. "Modern cochlear implant". Lasker Foundation. Archived from the original on 1 December 2022. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Ingeborg Hochmair". cochlear implant HELP. 7 January 2015. Archived from the original on 5 February 2023. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  5. ↑ "Ingeborg Hochmair – Vorzeigeunternehmerin mit Berufung" (in German). APA-Science. 12 September 2013. Archived from the original on 17 October 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2013.
  6. 1 2 3 "Priv.Doz. Dr.Dr.h.c. Ingeborg Hochmair-Desoyer". University of Zurich. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  7. 1 2 Holmes, David (14 September 2013). "Lasker Foundation honours cochlear-implant pioneers". The Lancet. 382 (9896): 926. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(13)61864-4 . ISSN   0140-6736. PMID   24044121. S2CID   27317555.
  8. ↑ Riedler, Michael (19 May 2001). "Gutes Gespür für's Gehör". Wirtschafts Blatt (in German). Archived from the original on 17 April 2016. Retrieved 17 October 2013.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Ingeborg J. Hochmair-Desoyer Biography | Ohio University". Ohio University. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  10. 1 2 Flatz, Christian (15 October 2021). "Verdiente Persönlichkeiten geehrt". Universität Innsbruck (in German). Archived from the original on 13 May 2022. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  11. ↑ Reinstadler-Rettenbacher, Katharina. "Ingeborg-Hochmair-Endowed Professorship for Women". University of Innsbruck. Archived from the original on 30 January 2023. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  12. ↑ "Journey to Developing MED-EL's Cochlear Implant: Interview with Dr. Ingeborg and Professor Erwin Hochmair, Founders of MED-EL". Cochlear Implant Online. 19 December 2012. Archived from the original on 21 August 2017. Retrieved 17 October 2013.
  13. ↑ "Hohe TU-Auszeichnung für das Forschungsehepaar Hochmair". tuwien.at (in German). 24 September 2015. Archived from the original on 6 February 2023. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  14. ↑ "MED-EL Founder and CEO Dr. Ingeborg Hochmair to Receive Prestigious Lasker Award for Development of the Modern Cochlear Implant" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 November 2022. Retrieved 27 May 2023.
  15. ↑ "Ingeborg J. Hochmair". Archived from the original on 7 December 2022. Retrieved 6 December 2022.
  16. ↑ ""Ingeborg Hochmair, Erwin Hochmair (Austria)"". Archived from the original on 7 December 2022. Retrieved 6 December 2022.
  17. ↑ Dhanasingh, Anandhan; Hochmair, Ingeborg (31 March 2021). "Signal processing & audio processors". Acta Oto-Laryngologica. 141 (sup1): 106–134. doi: 10.1080/00016489.2021.1888504 . ISSN   0001-6489. PMID   33818264. S2CID   233016076.
  18. ↑ GmbH, MED-EL Elektromedizinische Geräte. "MED-EL: First Surgeries Ever in Europe with a Totally Implantable Cochlear Implant" (Press release). PR Newswire. Archived from the original on 13 May 2022. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  19. 1 2 "Patents by Inventor Ingeborg Hochmair". Archived from the original on 7 December 2022. Retrieved 6 December 2022.
  20. ↑ ""INGEBORG J. HOCHMAIR, PH.D"" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 15 March 2023. Retrieved 6 December 2022.
  21. ↑ DE 2823798,Hochmair, Erwin&Hochmair, Ingeborg,"Verfahren zur elektrischen Stimulation des Hoernervs und Multikanal-Hoerprothese zur Durchfuehrung des Verfahrens [Method for electrical stimulation of the sensory nerve and multi-channel sensor prosthesis for performing the procedure]",published 1979-09-13, assigned to Siemens AG
  22. ↑ US 4284856,Hochmair, Ingeborg&Hochmair, Erwin,"Multi-frequency system and method for enhancing auditory stimulation and the like",published 1981-08-18
  23. ↑ Hochmair-Desoyer, I. J.; Hochmair, E. S.; Burian, K. (1983). "Design and fabrication of multiwire scala tympani electrodes". Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 405 (1): 173–182. Bibcode:1983NYASA.405..173H. doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.1983.tb31630.x. ISSN   0077-8923. PMID   6575641. S2CID   32766725. Archived from the original on 13 May 2022. Retrieved 27 May 2023.
  24. ↑ Hochmair-Desoyer, Ingeborg (1981). Technische Realisierung und Psychoakustische Evaluation eines Systems zur chronischen Mehrkanalstimulation des Nervus acusticus (in German). Wien: VWGO. ISBN   978-3-85369-491-6. OCLC   1063130202. Archived from the original on 13 May 2022. Retrieved 27 May 2023.
  25. ↑ Hochmair-Desoyer, I. J.; Hochmair, E. S.; Burian, K.; Fischer, R. E. (1981). "Four years of experience with cochlear prostheses". Medical Progress Through Technology. 8 (3): 107–119. ISSN   0047-6552. PMID   6895542. Archived from the original on 13 May 2022. Retrieved 27 May 2023.
  26. ↑ Hochmair-Desoyer, I. J.; Zierhofer, C.; Hochmair, E. S. (1993). "Chapter 27 New hardware for analog and combined analog and pulsatile sound-encoding strategies". Natural and Artificial Control of Hearing and Balance. Progress in Brain Research. Vol. 97. pp. 291–300. doi:10.1016/s0079-6123(08)62289-x. ISBN   978-0-444-81252-0. ISSN   0079-6123. PMID   8234755. Archived from the original on 13 May 2022. Retrieved 27 May 2023.
  27. ↑ Hochmair, Ingeborg; Arnold, Wolfgang; Nopp, Peter; Jolly, Claude; Müller, Joachim; Roland, Peter (June 2003). "Deep electrode insertion in cochlear implants: apical morphology, electrodes and speech perception results". Acta Oto-Laryngologica. 123 (5): 612–617. ISSN   0001-6489. PMID   12875584. Archived from the original on 8 November 2022. Retrieved 27 May 2023.
  28. ↑ Hochmair, Ingeborg; Nopp, Peter; Jolly, Claude; Schmidt, Marcus; Schösser, Hansjörg; Garnham, Carolyn; Anderson, Ilona (December 2006). "MED-EL Cochlear implants: state of the art and a glimpse into the future". Trends in Amplification. 10 (4): 201–219. doi:10.1177/1084713806296720. ISSN   1084-7138. PMC   4111377 . PMID   17172548.
  29. ↑ "Ehrendoktorate". Medizinische Fakultät. 14 November 2014. Archived from the original on 19 November 2015. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  30. ↑ "Tiroler Ehrenzeichen verliehen".
  31. ↑ "Großer Ehrungstag der Medizinischen Universität Innsbruck im Zeichen Europas". Studium.at (in German). 15 November 2010. Archived from the original on 23 June 2019. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  32. ↑ "Verdiente Persönlichkeiten ausgezeichnet". Innsbruck Informiert (in German). Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  33. ↑ "Uni Innsbruck gratuliert Ingeborg Hochmair zu Ehrenring der Stadt Garbsen". uibk.ac.at. Archived from the original on 13 May 2022. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  34. ↑ "TU Wien. Events. Search events. | TU Wien". tuwien.at. Archived from the original on 13 May 2022. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  35. ↑ Landesregierung, Amt der Tiroler (30 March 2015). "Ring des Landes an Ingeborg Hochmair-Desoyer verliehen". Land Tirol (in German). Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  36. ↑ "Prechtl Medals | TU Wien". tuwien.at. Archived from the original on 24 December 2022. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  37. ↑ "Seit dem 1.1.2015 wurde vom Herrn Bundespräsidenten folgenden Personen der Berufstitel Kommerzialrat / Kommerzialrätin verliehen" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 November 2022. Retrieved 27 May 2023.
  38. ↑ "Technologiepreis für Cochleaimplantat-Pioniere". vde.com (in German). Archived from the original on 9 February 2023. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  39. ↑ Bahl, Redakteur01. "Ingeborg Hochmair erhält Ehrenring 2017 – Freundeskreis Garbsen" (in German). Archived from the original on 6 February 2023. Retrieved 13 May 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  40. ↑ "ÖAW WÄHLTE 29 NEUE MITGLIEDER". oeaw.ac.at (in German). Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  41. ↑ "Prizes attributed on behalf of Corlas". Corlas. Archived from the original on 5 February 2023. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  42. ↑ "Dr. Ingeborg Hochmair erhält Ehrendoktorwürde der Universität Bern – COMEO". comeo.de. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  43. ↑ "MED-EL Gründerin Ingeborg Hochmair-Desoyer erhält Ehrendoktorwürde der Medizinischen Universität Uppsala" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 November 2022. Retrieved 27 May 2023.
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