Following his 2018 Kavli Medal prize, Dr. Robert Fettiplace has been named a 2019 Passano Fellow for his research into the mechanics of hearing. He earned the award for showing how cochlear hair cells sense the tiny mechanical vibrations that sound produces in the inner ear.
He shares the 2019 Passano award with fellow hearing researcher A. James Hudspeth of Rockefeller University, with whom he also shared the 2018 Kavli Medal award.
The Passano Foundation recognizes members of the medical and scientific community who have made an outstanding research contribution. Based upon the ideals and vision of the late Edward Boetler Passano, the Foundation presents an award each year to a research physician who has made an exceptional contribution to the advancement of medical science.
The Passano Foundation partners with Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland Medical School to award the prize.
Fettiplace gave the 2019 Passano Award Lecture at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore where he presented research on “The molecular make-up of the hair cell transduction channel.”