ROSEN, SAMUEL

ROSEN, SAMUEL (1897–1981), U.S. otologist. Rosen was born in Syracuse, New York, and originally studied law at the Syracuse Law School. He subsequently switched to medicine, however, graduating from the Syracuse Medical School in 1921. He specialized in otology at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, where he was consulting otologist and later emeritus clinical professor of otolaryngology.

In 1952 Rosen discovered a new method for restoring hearing to patients suffering from otosclerosis by an operation, the so-called Stapes-Mobilization procedure. As a result, thousands of patients regained their hearing, and Rosen demonstrated the method throughout the world, including Egypt, Israel, and the U.S.S.R. President *Nasser expressed his appreciation to him after he performed surgery at the Cairo Medical School. When Rosen expressed his surprise that Nasser had invited a Jew, he answered: "your work is above race and country." Rosen was also elected a member of the Soviet Medical Academy.

In 1957, he received the Hektoen-Gold Award for "original work in medicine" of the American Medical Association as well as an award by the University of Bologna. In 1964, he was awarded the George-Arents Pioneer Medal for Excellence in Medicine by Syracuse University. He made several trips, with his wife, to a remote area of the Sudan to investigate the remarkable hearing ability of the Mabaan tribe. He was also a member of the first medical team in a quarter of a century to visit China, and lectured extensively on Chinese medicine and acupuncture.

His autobiography, published in 1973, was widely acclaimed.

bibliography:

The Autobiography of Dr. Samuel Rosen (1973); A.M. Sackler, in: Medical Tribune (June 6, 1973); J.M. Lawrence, in: Syracuse University Alumni News (Summer 1973); B.G. Rudolph, From a Minyan to a Community. A History of the Jews of Syracuse (c. 1970), 252–54.

[Heinz Hartman]