Georg Békésy was a Hungarian-born American physicist. As director of the Hungarian Telephone System Research Laboratory (1923–1946), Békésy worked on problems of communication and the mechanics of human hearing. At Harvard University, he carried on his research (1949–1966) on the cochlea of the ear. For this research he received the 1961 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Extending his studies to other senses, he developed a unified picture of the role of sensory and nervous processes in perception.