Who is Graeme Clark?
Graeme Clark is an Australian surgeon and scientist who developed the multichannel cochlear implant, often called the bionic ear. The first implant operation took place in Melbourne in 1978.
Clark was born in Camden, New South Wales, in 1935. His father was deaf, and seeing the difficulties this caused inspired him to look for ways to help people with severe hearing loss.
He became the first professor of otolaryngology at the University of Melbourne in 1970. Many experts at the time doubted that electrical stimulation of the inner ear could help people understand speech.
The first implant
In 1978, Rod Saunders, who had lost his hearing in a car accident, became the first person to receive Clark's multichannel implant at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital. Clark is said to have been partly inspired by observing how a blade of grass could be inserted into the spiral of a seashell.
The device was later developed commercially by the Australian company Cochlear Limited. Cochlear implants have since helped hundreds of thousands of people around the world to hear.
Clark has received many honors, including the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award in 2013, which he shared with two other researchers. He has also been named a Companion of the Order of Australia.
Did You Know?
Graeme Clark founded the Bionics Institute in Melbourne to continue research into medical devices.