Hallowell Davis

Hallowell Davis (August 31, 1896 – August 22, 1992) was an American physiologist and otolaryngologist and researcher who did pioneering work on the physiology of hearing and the inner ear. He served as director of research at the Central Institute for the Deaf in St. Louis, Missouri.

Hallowell Davis was born on August 31, 1896, in New York City, the son of attorney Horace A. Davis. He graduated from Harvard College in 1918, where he was the class orator at graduation. He earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1922 and then spent a year at the University of Cambridge where he was trained as an electrophysiologist in the laboratory of Edgar Adrian, 1st Baron Adrian.

In 1925, Harvard named Davis to serve as an official tutor and instructor in pre-medical sciences, as a means of helping prepare students intending to advance to Harvard and other medical schools to "get the soundest general foundation possible for their medical education". After the year in England, he returned to teach at Harvard and became an assistant professor at Harvard College in 1927 and the school's first tutor in biochemical sciences, later becoming the director of the school's Psycho-Acoustic Laboratory.

During the 1930s, Davis participated in the development of electroencephalography and was the first person in the United States to have his brain waves scanned by an EEG device. He focused on the physiology of the inner ear, investigating how neurological impulses are transmitted to the brain via the cochlear nerve. His studies led to the development of electrical-response audiometry, which allowed diagnosis of hearing difficulties in infants.Robert Galambos credited Davis with coining the word "audiology" in the 1940s, with Davis saying the then-prevalent term "auricular training" sounded like a method of teaching people how to wiggle their ears.

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