MD, Prof. G.A. Tavartkiladze is the Director and founder of the National Research Center for Audiology and Hearing Rehabilitation; Head of the Surdology department of the Russian Medical Academy for Post-Diploma Education, and an academician of the Russian Medical-Technical Academy. Prof. Tavartkiladze graduated from the Russian State Medical University, following which he defended his PhD thesis entitled ‘Acoustic impedance measurement and tubosonometry in audiological diagnostics’. In 1987 this was followed by his full doctoral thesis ‘Brainstem and cochlear auditory evoked potentials – normal and affected by various types of hearing loss’
G.A. Tavartkiladze is President of the National Audiological Society of Russia. In 2006-2010 he was elected as President of the International Society of Audiology; in 2006-2007 he served as President of Collegium Oto-Rhino-Laryngologicum Amicitiae Sacrum (CORLAS). In 2008 he was elected President of the International Academy for Otorhinolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery. In 2012 he was appointed Secretary General of the International Society of Audiology.
Professor Tavartkiladze is member of the American Academy of Audiology, American Auditory Society, European Academy of Otology and Neuro-Otology and other institutions. Since 2004 he has served on the expert board of the World Health Organization. George Abelovich has conducted 4 National Congresses of Audiology, 9 international symposii ‘Current problems of the physiology and pathology of hearing’, 15 national conferences and seminars. Under his supervision, the prestigious International Symposium on Acoustic Evoked Potentials was conducted in Moscow in 2011. In 2012, Moscow hosted the International Congress of Audiology.
Prof. Tavartkiladze is author of more than 350 works published both in Russian and foreign journals. He is chief editor of Folia Otorhinolaryngologiae et Pathologiae Respiratoriae; editorial board member for the Journal of Hearing Science, Audiology Research and many others.
He spoke as guest lecturer at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD/NIH, USA), Vanderbilt University (Nashville, USA), Brigham Young University (Provo, Utah, USA), and in Tokyo University.
The bulk of Prof.Tavartkiladze’s research is devoted to issues in experimental and clinical audiology, including mechanisms of primary auditory perception, frequential selectivity of the auditory periphery, micromechanics of the Corti organ via analysis of otoacoustic emissions, development of electrophysiological criteria for diagnosing various types of hearing losses. Among significant interests and outcomes can be counted also development of a universal system for audiological screeening; cochlear implantation; objective criteria and efficiency evaluation of electroacoustic hearing therapy; development of criteria for audiological expert evaluation inclusive of medical and social factors; occupational hearing losses.
In 1991, for the first time, a nationwide multi-channel cochlear implantation program was launched under his supervision. 1996 saw the introduction of a program of neonatal hearing screening of newborns and infants in the first year of life.
Under the Professor’s supervision, joint research is carried out between the NIDCD, the European Otoacoustic Emissions Project, European Project on influence of magnetic fields emitted by mobile phones on hearing capacity.
Professor Tavartkiladze has founded a school acnowledged both nationally and internationally. 24 PhD theses and 6 doctoral theses have been completed under his supervision.
Awarded the Druzhba distinction in 1996 for contribution into development of audiology. In 2008 decorated with the Order of the Holy Tsarevich Dmitriy, and the Malachite Star order.