Étienne Lombard

Étienne Lombard (1869 to 1920) was a French otolaryngologist and surgeon who is remembered for the Lombard effect, the involuntary rise in a speaker's voice when background noise is present. He worked at Lariboisière Hospital in Paris, where he became the first "oto-rhino-laryngologiste des Hôpitaux" in France, developed new surgical techniques and designed a new form of bone forceps. In 1909 he observed that a person talking in conversation raised their voice as soon as noise was played, using a device invented by Robert Bárány that delivered intense noise to one ear only. He reported the finding to the French Academy of Sciences in August 1909 and to the Academy of Medicine the next year, and a printed dispute over priority with Bárány followed after German publications credited Bárány. During the First World War he studied the effects of air blasts on 600 aviators, but illness ended that work and led to his early death. He is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.