Georg von Békésy was a Hungarian-born scientist who discovered how sound is analyzed and communicated in the cochlea, part of the inner ear. For this work, in 1961 he became the first physicist to receive the Nobel Prize in medicine and physiology in 1961.

The son of a diplomat, Békésy was born in Budapest, Hungary. He studied at the University of Bern in Switzerland, graduating in 1920, and at the University of Budapest, from which he received a doctorate in physics. He then worked at the Hungarian Telephone System Research Laboratory for nearly a quarter of a century. During this same period, he also worked at the central laboratories of Siemens and Halske AC in Berlin as well as serving on the University of Budapest faculty. In 1946, after Soviet forces occupied Hungary, Békésy emigrated to Sweden, and then in...