RTI International - News Release - 6.14.2006

Cochlear Implant Pioneer, Blake Wilson, Honored at Vienna Conference

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. -- Blake Wilson, senior fellow at RTI International and adjunct professor at Duke University Medical Center, is being honored for his many scientific contributions to hearing research at the "9th International Conference on Cochlear Implants," which begins today in Vienna, Austria.

Wilson is the third person to be named a special guest of honor by the conference. He is credited with inventing most of the processing strategies used in present-day cochlear implant systems, devices implanted in the inner ear to restore speech comprehension to the deaf. Those strategies, together with stimulation at multiple sites in the cochlea, have helped move implants from little more than a lip-reading aid 25 years ago to the highly effective auditory prosthesis available today.

More than 1,000 participants are expected to attend the Vienna conference. Following introductions, Wilson will open the conference with his address as the Special Guest of Honor.

Wilson has received numerous awards and honors recognizing his work advancing cochlear implant technology. He has been the guest of honor at eight prior international conferences, and a keynote or invited speaker at more than 120 others. He served as the elected Chair of the 1991 Conference on Implantable Auditory Prostheses. In 1996 he was awarded the Discover Award for Technological Innovation in the "sound" category, and in 1997 he and the RTI research team received a citation from the president of the American Otological Society for "major contributions to the restoration of hearing in profoundly deaf persons."

One of Wilson's papers, published in 1991 in the journal Nature, is among the most highly cited publications in the field of cochlear implants.

Wilson will serve as chair of a Hearing Preservation Workshop to be held in Research Triangle Park this coming October. The workshop will include participants from Europe, India, Canada and the Middle East as well as the United States.