Ingeborg Hochmair is an Austrian electrical engineer and entrepreneur.

iconeInfo A conference by Ms Ingeborg Hochmair entitled "Cochlear implants : the cure of deafness and the significance of translational research" will take place on Friday 18 March from 15:30 to 16:30 at the Faculty of Medicine, Bacq and Florkin Amphitheatre.

Ingeborg HOCHMAIR OK 

With a doctorate in Science from the University of Vienna as well as a doctorate in Electrical Engineering, Ingeborg Hochmair has contributed to the development of cochlear implants since the 1970s. Her innovations have proven very successful: in 2017 she received the prestigious Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for the development of the modern cochlear implant, a system that restores hearing to severely deaf people through electrical stimulation of the auditory nerve.

Thanks to the multi-channel cochlear implant, her invention (in collaboration with her husband, Erwin Hochmair), men and women can hear speech clearly instead of only muffled sounds. Two components are combined: an external processor that converts sounds into electrical signals and an internal implant that transmits this information to the brain. The implant itself consists of a computer that receives information from the processor and electrodes that transmit this information.

At present, this cochlear implant remains the only system capable of replacing a human sense. Ingeborg Hochmair's intellectual rigour, pioneering spirit and quest for excellence have transformed the lives of almost 100,000 people worldwide.

In 1986, Dr Ingeborg Hochmair and Professor Erwin Hochmair founded the start-up company MED-EL (Medical Electronics) with the aim of creating cutting-edge applications. The company employs over 1,500 people worldwide.

In addition to the Albert Lasker Prize, Ingeborg Hochmair is also the winner of the Holzer Prize (1979), the Leonardo da Vinci Prize (1980) and the Sandoz Prize (1984). She was named Entrepreneur of the Year in 1995 and also received the Wilhelm Exner Medal in 1996.  She has published more than 100 specialist articles and holds more than 40 patents as inventor or co-inventor.

Share this page