Barany, Robert (1876-1936), an Austrian physiologist and ear specialist, was awarded the 1914 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine. Barany studied the causes of diseases of the central cavity of the vestibular (inner ear) apparatus. Barany continued the experiments on animals done by Ernst Mach of Austria, and Pierre Jean Marie Flourens of France. He pioneered the study of the vestibular apparatus (the semicircular canals, the utricle, and the saccule). These are the organs of the inner ear concerned with balance; they inform the brain about changes in the position of the head.
During World War I (1914-1918), Barany volunteered his services to the Austrian Army medical service, and worked as a civilian surgeon, dealing with many head injuries, and this helped him to further his neurological studies. News of his Nobel Prize reached him while he was in a Russian prisoner-of-war camp.
Robert Barany was born on April 22, 1876, in Vienna, Austria. In 1900, he graduated from the University of Vienna. He later studied internal medicine, psychiatric neurology, neurology, and surgery in Germany. In 1917, he became the director of the otorhinolaryngology (ear, nose, and throat) clinic at the Otological Institute, Uppsala University, Sweden. Barany died on April 8, 1936.
See also Ear .
