Nobel Prize Recipient. Robert Bárány, an Austrian otologist, received world-wide recognition after being awarded the 1914 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine, according to the Nobel Prize committee, "for his work on the physiology and pathology of the vestibular apparatus." Starting in 1910 he received seven nominations in four years to be a candidate for the Nobel Prize. Born the oldest of six children to parents of Hungarian ancestry, his father was a Jewish bank clerk, and his mother was the daughter of a Prague scientist. As a youngster, he was infected with tuberculosis, which resulted in ankylosis of the right knee, leaving him with a slight limp; a 1920 photographs document that he used a cane . While recuperating, he decided that he wanted to became a physician. He graduated with a degree in medicine from the University of Vienna in 1900 before studying in German clinics in Frankfurt, Heidelberg and Freigburg. He became an assistant in an ear clinic at the University of Vienna, and in 1909 began to lecturer on otologic medicine. It was during this time period that he devised new test for detecting vestibular disease and for examining activities of the cerebellum and problems with equilibrium. During World War I, he served the Austrian army even though he had the limp from childhood. While on the front line in Poland, he was a surgeon treating open head injuries. He achieved good results with a new post-operative closed wound procedure, and he documented the results in articles, which were sent to Vienna and Tübingen to be published. These publications documented when this procedure was first done, thus he received credit for it. His field hospital was surrounded by Russian force in April of 1915, and he was captured, and taken prisoner by the Imperial Russian Army. He was later transferred to a Russian detention camp in Turkmenistan, where he developed malaria. He was allowed to treat fellow prisoners as well as injured Russians. He was a prisoner of war when the Nobel Prize committee announced he would receive the 1914 award. With the Swedish authorities having diplomatic negotiations with the Russian Czar , he was released in June of 1916 and presented the award by the King of Sweden at Stockholm. He gave lectures on his successful brain surgery while in Sweden. Since his family was in Vienna, he returned to find his colleagues were bitter about him receiving the Nobel Prize as his work was based on the research of others years before, yet he was the only one who applied the research to a human. Most Nobel Prizes are based on expanded work that was done years earlier by a pioneer researcher. In order to receive a Nobel Prize, the researcher has to be nominated and these pioneer researchers were not nominated. A number of famous Swedish otologists published a paper in his defense. Other sources state that his medical degree was no longer being recognized in Austria. At this point, he returned to Sweden to accept a post at the Otological Institute at the Uppsala, University, advancing to a full professor and principal by 1924 and remaining there the rest of his life. Some sources mention it was lonely for him leaving his beloved Austria, but it appears that his family for generations bloomed in Sweden. He nominated Dr. Sigmund Freud for the Nobel Prize in 1917, 1918, 1919, and 1920; Freud never received the coveted award even with a total of 33 nominations. It was documented that after Freud heard of Barany's repeated nominations, he regretted not allowing Barany to be one of his students when he applied years earlier. Barany is well-known by all ear, nose, and throat specialists because he gave his name to a noise box used in audiological testing. He made several trips around the world lecturing and one was to the United States. In his later years, he studied the causes of muscular rheumatism, writing a book on the subject. He continued his research and writing even after having a debilitating stroke. He married in 1909 and the couple had two sons and a daughter. Each of his children followed him in a medical field career: professor of pharmacology, professor of medicine, and a psychiatrist. His grandson served on the Nobel Prize committee for physics from 1989 to 2003. His image is on a 1976 Austrian postage stamp and a 1988 Swedish postage stamp. Although not 60 years old, he died from another cerebral hemorrhage due to malignant hypertension.