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Blake Shaw Wilson

Adjunct Professor in the Department of Head and Neck Surgery & Communication Sciences
Head and Neck Surgery & Communication Sciences
2410 Wrightwood Ave., Durham, NC 27705
2410 Wrightwood Ave., Durham, NC 27705

Overview


Prof. Wilson is the Director of the Duke Hearing Center and is an Adjunct or Consulting Professor in each of three departments at Duke: Head and Neck Surgery & Communication Sciences, Biomedical Engineering, and Electrical and Computer Engineering. He has been involved in the development of the cochlear implant (CI) for four decades and is the inventor of many of the signal processing strategies used with the present-day CIs. One of his papers, in the journal Nature, is the most highly cited publication in the principal field of CIs. He also has become keenly interested in global hearing healthcare and presently is the Chair of the Lancet Commission on Hearing Loss. He or he and his teams or colleagues have been recognized with a high number of awards and honors, including the 2015 Russ Prize, “for engineering cochlear implants that allow the deaf to hear,” and the 2013 Lasker~DeBakey Award, “for the development of the modern cochlear implant – a device that bestows hearing to individuals with profound deafness.” The Russ Prize is the world’s top honor for bioengineering and the Lasker Awards are second only to the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for recognizing advances in medicine and medical science. Prof. Wilson is a recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke (in 2007) and from the University as a whole (in 2019; the 42nd recipient of that Award). Additionally, he is a member of the USA’s National Academy of Engineering and is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Acoustical Society of America, and the National Academy of Inventors.

Current Appointments & Affiliations


Adjunct Professor in the Department of Head and Neck Surgery & Communication Sciences · 2002 - Present Head and Neck Surgery & Communication Sciences, Clinical Science Departments
Scholar in Residence in the Pratt School of Engineering · 2013 - Present Pratt School of Engineering
Adjunct Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering · 2015 - Present Electrical and Computer Engineering, Pratt School of Engineering
Affiliate, Duke Global Health Institute · 2014 - Present Duke Global Health Institute, University Institutes and Centers

In the News


Published February 27, 2025
Blake Wilson’s Efforts to Help People Hear
Published December 17, 2024
Duke 100 Trailblazer: Blake Wilson
Published December 12, 2023
Co-Inventor of Hearing Device Wins IEEE Medal

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Recent Publications


Development of Measures for d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing Stigma: Introduction to the Special Supplement on Stigma Measurement Tools.

Journal Article Ear Hear · September 2024 People who are d/Deaf or hard of hearing (d/DHH) often experience stigma and discrimination in their daily lives. Qualitative research describing their lived experiences has provided useful, in-depth insights into the pervasiveness of stigma. Quantitative ... Full text Link to item Cite

Towards universal access: A review of global efforts in ear and hearing care.

Journal Article Hear Res · April 2024 Hearing loss affects 1.6 billion people worldwide and disproportionately affects those in low- and middle-income countries. Despite being largely preventable or treatable, ear and hearing conditions result in significant and lifelong morbidity such as dela ... Full text Link to item Cite

Priorities for hearing loss prevention and estimates of global cause-specific burdens of hearing loss: a systematic rapid review.

Journal Article The Lancet. Global health · February 2024 BackgroundHearing loss affects approximately 1·6 billion individuals worldwide. Many cases are preventable. We aimed to estimate the annual number of new hearing loss cases that could be attributed to meningitis, otitis media, congenital rubella s ... Full text Cite
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Recent Grants


Lancet Project

ConferencePrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Fondation Pour L'Audition · 2019 - 2022

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Education, Training & Certifications


Duke University · 2015 Ph.D.
University of Technology Sydney (Australia) · 2014 D.Eng.
University of Warwick (United Kingdom) · 2013 D.Sc.
Duke University · 1974 B.S.E.E.