Jiří Skřivan, M.D., PhD. was born in the year 1958. He graduated in the Faculty of General Medicine of the Charles University in Prague in 1984. In the same year he became a resident and later a junior assistant in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery of the 1st Medical Faculty, Charles University in Prague. In the years 1987 and 1991 respectively he has gained a specialization degree on otorhinolaryngology of the 1st and 2nd grade. In the year 2001 he successfully defended a dissertation thesis entitled Predictive factors in Cochlear Implant Candidates. In the Department, he held a position of the Department Head Deputy for the research and science. In the year 2014, he has become a head of the Department of Otorhinolaryngology of the 2nd Medical Faculty, Charles University in Prague.

His pedagogic activities span from the 1st and 2nd Medical Faculties of the Charles University. He teaches medical and postgradual students as well. He is active as a lector on many surgical courses abroad. He is a member of the Czech Board for Otorhinolaryngology.

His interests lay especially in otosurgery, otology, skull base surgery and surgical treatment of hearing disorders, both in children and adults.

He has presented a number of scientific papers, published several monographies and about one hundred of scientific articles.

Professor Sharma’s research focuses on the impact of hearing loss on the brain.  She is currently examining the effects of auditory deprivation (ranging from mild-moderate hearing loss to profound deafness) on development and re-organization of the central auditory pathways, and on cross-modal compensatory plasticity from visual and somatosensory modalities.  Dr. Sharma is also interested in the effects of intervention with hearing aids and cochlear implants on cortical plasticity and behavioral outcomes.  Dr. Sharma is interested in neuroplasticity at both ends of the age spectrum (infants and young children, as well as age-related hearing loss in older adults).

Dr. Sharma and her research team are conducting studies using evoked potentials and high-density EEG in adults and children with normal hearing, hearing loss and auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder.  She directs a state-of-the-art laboratory where students perform electrophysiology testing (using auditory, visual and somatosensory stimulation) source localization and EEG brain dynamics as well as speech perception and cognitive behavioral experiments.

Dr. Sharma also directs a clinical laboratory where she is performing research to assess the sensitivity of cortical potentials as clinical biomarkers to determine the maturational status of the central auditory system in persons with hearing loss.  Dr. Sharma’s research is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).