Stephen O’Leary is a surgeon scientist who has dedicated his career to the treatment of hearing loss, especially the prevention of hearing loss during surgical interventions to the inner ear such as cochlear implantation. His experimental finding that steroids protect the ear during cochlear implantation has lead to clinical trials. His team’s development of intraoperative monitoring of hearing directly from the cochlear implant’s electrode is now in global trials and commercial development. Stephen has also explored neural engineering and regenerative medicine approaches to improving cochlear implant performance, developed VR simulators to improve surgical training and contributed to Indigenous ear health.