Robert Galambos
University of California, San Diego
April 20, 1914 - June 18, 2010
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Scientific Discipline: Psychological and Cognitive Sciences Membership Type:
Member
(elected 1960)
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Neuroscientist Robert Galambos’s innovative research on sound and hearing led to the modern understanding of how human and animal brains interpret sound. As a graduate student, Galambos conducted research on the navigational techniques and patterns of bats. He discovered that by emitting high-pitch noises, bats are able to echolocate their path and avoid obstacles. Galambos also developed a method for identifying hearing loss in newborn infants. This technique allowed infants to receive treatment quickly to avoid facing any impairment in language development.
Galambos graduated from Oberlin College in 1937 and earned his PhD from Harvard University in 1941. He also earned a medical degree from Rochester University in 1946. Galambos conducted research and held professorships at a number of institutions, including Emory University, Harvard, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Yale University, and the University of California, San Diego, where he was the co-founder of the Department of Neurosciences.
