Bruce Gantz, MD, professor of otolaryngology with University of Iowa Health Care, will receive the American Cochlear Implant Alliance (ACI Alliance) 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award at the Opening Session of CI2025 Boston on May 1, 2025. The Lifetime Achievement award recognizes the contributions over the whole of a career and for the work and accomplishments of the individual being recognized.
Gantz has spent his entire medical career at the University of Iowa, including receiving a bachelor’s degree, medical degree, and master’s degree from the UI. He has devoted his career to advancing cochlear implant technology and expanding indications for implantation. Gantz implanted the first cochlear implant at the University of Iowa in 1980, and in 1987 he was the first in the United States to implant a congenitally deaf child with a multi-channel cochlear implant. He helped establish the Iowa Cochlear Implant Clinical Research Center in 1985 and has served as the principal investigator since the center’s inception. In that role, he has led research that demonstrated longevity of hearing preservation for over 20 years in listeners with acoustic and electric signal processing, which has significantly expanded eligibility criteria for those who obtained little benefit from their hearing aids. One of the main objectives of his research is to further develop our understanding of how the brain processes speech in demanding listening environments by examining critical issues across all levels of the auditory system.
In 2023 the center received its eighth funding renewal from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the form of a five-year, $13.8 million grant from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, bringing the total funding for the center to more than $76 million over 43 years. Marlan Hansen, MD, UI professor and chair of the Department of Otolaryngology, is now co-principal investigator on the current P50 grant.
“Bruce Gantz has been a pioneer and international leader of cochlear implant research for more than four decades,” Hansen says. “His contributions to the field and to the care of patients with hearing loss are immeasurable. This is a well-deserved honor and recognition of Dr. Gantz’s enormous impact.”
Gantz has authored over 270 peer-reviewed manuscripts and held offices in multiple professional organizations in the field, including being a founding board member of the American Cochlear Implant Alliance. His significant contributions to teaching, research, and clinical medicine have profoundly impacted the way we carry out cochlear implantation in the U.S. and around the world impacting the profession of otolaryngology and transforming the lives of many thousands of children and adults with profound hearing loss.
*For more information on the Lifetime Achievement Award: https://www.acialliance.org/page/LifetimeAchievementAward
*For more information on CI2025 Boston: https://ci2025boston.org/
ACI Alliance is a not-for-profit membership organization created with the purpose of eliminating barriers to cochlear implantation by sponsoring research, driving heightened awareness, and advocating for improved access to cochlear implants for patients of all ages across the US.
Editor’s Note: This announcement was adapted from a news release by the ACI Alliance