A Polish legend

I had the unique and wonderful opportunity to be present as a very famous Pole received a very distinguished award at this meeting.

Dr. Jozef Zwislocki is a native of Poland, whose family escaped in 1939. He holds degrees in electrical engineering and an Sc.D. in technical sciences at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland. He taught and conducted research for more than 35 years at Syracuse University, retiring in 1992 as Distinguished Professor of Neuroscience at the Institute for Sensory Research (ISR). He is recognized as one of the world's leading auditory researchers, with a teaching and research speciality in the auditory system and its psychophysics, biophysics, and psychophysiology.

In 1958, the ISR was established under his direction at Syracuse University. In 1970, he invented the "Zwislocki Coupler," an artificial ear that determines the amount of current needed in an earphone to produce a particular sound intensity at the eardrum. This is among his 12 patents in hearing aid technologies. More recently, he has invented a sound muffling device for industrial application.

As a part of the award presentation, it was very exciting to see his colleagues from Poland giving him their thanks and appreciation. Many researchers from Poland made a very long journey to present him with a beautiful framed photograph of his family with his grandfather, who was perhaps the greatest president in Poland's history. Dr. Zwislocki gave a wonderful speech in which he told a story of having recently been fit with hearing aids, and how he recognized some of the procedures still used today in clinical audiology were those he had invented. We all thank Dr. Zwislocki for his many wonderful contributions to our field, and are honored to have "shared air" with him.