Page created by: The Sachs Family

Murray B. Sachs, PhD
September 3, 1940 - March 3, 2018

Murray B. Sachs was a former professor of biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University, whose research established the groundwork for the cochlear implant. He passed away on March 3, 2018 after suffering from Parkinson's disease for 25 years.

Dr. Sachs received his undergraduate and graduate degrees in electrical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During his graduate work, he turned his attention to studying the brain, working with the noted auditory neuroscientists Nelson Kiang, William Peake, and Tom Weiss. His postdoctoral research extended to visual neuroscience at the University of Cambridge. He returned in 1969 to serve in the Navy and joined the Naval Underwater Sound Laboratory, working on submarine communication.

In 1970, Dr. Sachs became an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University where he spent his scientific career, rising to the rank of Professor. His scientific research broke new ground about the way the brain receives and processes information about sound. With colleagues, he developed methods for estimating the responses of large populations of auditory neurons to sounds and applied the method to show how information about human speech is represented in the brain. This revolutionary research allowed scientists to understand the global picture of sound representation, as opposed to methods that focused on single neurons, studied one by one. This work provided a basis for designing and improving hearing aids and cochlear implants and was influential in advancing theories of auditory cognition.

Dr. Sachs' research accomplishments were recognized by prestigious awards, including the Award of Merit of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, the von Bekesy Medal of the Acoustical Society of America, and by memberships in both the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Engineering.

He became the Director of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins in 1991 and served in that position until 2007. He more than doubled the size of the faculty, and spearheaded the funding and design of a new building to accommodate the growth. He advanced the boundaries of Biomedical Engineering into new scientific areas to leverage the tremendous developments occurring in basic biological science at the time, areas such as genetics, cellular communications and organization, and medical imaging. The Department's reputation as one of the best in the world derives in large part from Dr. Sachs' leadership during this period of growth.

The importance of his scientific work is matched by his organizational and leadership accomplishments. He initiated and led the Center for Hearing and Balance at Johns Hopkins, which brought together researchers from biological, medical, and engineering departments to collaborate on these sensory systems. The Center flourished under his leadership and has now grown to a major internationally recognized research group.

The students Dr. Sachs trained include leading researchers and academics across the country, with two current chairmen of major departments of BME. In the laboratory, he was warm and supportive while conveying the rigor and excitement of high quality scientific inquiry. He encouraged his students to think independently and to advance their work in unanticipated directions, helping them to expand the boundaries of their thinking. This training strategy explains why many of his students now work in scientific disciplines remote from their thesis work.

Murray Sachs was born in St. Louis, Missouri and grew up in University City, the son of a lawyer who left legal practice to start a woodworking factory. He attended MIT and became inspired to apply electrical engineering principles to the study of the brain. During college, he met his future wife, Merle Diener, in St. Louis and traveled to see her during school breaks. They married in 1968, eventually moving to Baltimore in 1970. Merle became a child therapist, first with Baltimore Jewish Family & Children's Services and then in private practice. Murray was an avid sailor, who loved captaining The Gratitude in the Chesapeake Bay and sailing with his dear friends in Casco Bay, Maine. He was a runner who completed the Maryland and New York marathons. He also was a lifelong baseball fan, coming to adore the Orioles, and avidly following the Colts and Ravens.

Merle preceded him in death by three weeks.

Dr. Sachs is survived by his sons Benjamin Sachs & his wife Lisa, and Jonathan Sachs & his wife Kate, and by his grandchildren Talia, Aviva, Zoe, Zander, Jonah, and Miriam.