Patients of Hopkins physicians GEORGE T. NAGER, M.D., and John Niparko, M.D., the inaugural chairholder, supported the creation of this professorship. Dr. Nager was considered one of the world’s leading otological surgeons and otopathologists, as well as an outstanding teacher, mentor, and clinician. Among his many honors was inclusion in the American Otological Society, which restricts membership to 100 living individuals, and in the Collegium, which permits only 20 American members. Dr. Nager came to Hopkins as a fellow and joined the faculty in 1954. In 1969, he was named director of the Division of Otology and Laryngology, which the following year became the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. He stepped down as chairman in 1984. Dr. Nager reorganized the Temporal Bone Pathology Laboratory, which under his leadership gained an international reputation. His publications on tumors and bone diseases involving the ear have become classic references. In 2001 he was named a Distinguished Service Professor. Dr. Nager died in 2010.
George T. Nager, M.D., Professorship in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery
School of Medicine
Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery
Established in 2003 in honor of George T. Nager with commitments made beginning in 1994 by Hopkins patients including Sigrid T. Cerf and her husband, Vinton
Held by Amanda Lauer
AMANDA LAUER, PH.D. is the George T. Nager, M.D. Associate Professor and Vice Director for Academic Affairs in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. She also holds a joint appointment in the Department of Neuroscience. Dr. Lauer received her Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of Maryland, College Park. There, she trained in the Integrative Neuroscience program and the Center for Comparative and Evolutionary Biology of Hearing and immediately moved into medical research as a postdoctoral fellow in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine’s Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, where she joined the faculty in 2011.
She applies basic discoveries in animal models to clinically relevant hearing disorders. Her highly collaborative, federally and philanthropically funded research program spans multiple disciplines (otology/hearing science, neuroscience, biology, psychology, engineering).
At Johns Hopkins and abroad, Dr. Lauer is widely considered a leading expert in small animal auditory phenotyping, drawing on her decades of experience performing behavioral and physiological assessments of hearing sensitivity and complex sound processing in animal models of inherited and acquired hearing deficits. She has made substantial contributions to our understanding of hearing disorders across species, including humans, as well as the role of brain-to-ear feedback pathways play in hearing. Her lab pairs clinically applicable physiological measures with quantitative anatomical analysis and behavioral techniques to reveal mechanisms contributing to hearing deficits.
As Director of the David M. Rubenstein Auditory Phenotyping Core, which supports researchers across the institution, Dr. Lauer has procured resources and provided oversight of lab personnel performing small animal hearing screening and consulted with other labs regarding selecting appropriate tests, experimental design, and data analysis and interpretation.
Dr. Lauer co-leads an effort to re-establish human temporal bone research at Johns Hopkins–reviving a 100-year tradition of being on the forefront of otopathology research, which was last updated by Dr. Nager. She is a nationally and internationally recognized and respected researcher, mentor, educator, leader, and facilitator.