dix joined the national hospital for neurology and neurosurgery as a medical research council researcher in 1945, studying deafness in ex-servicemen. she was hired by charles skinner hallpike, who encouraged her to pursue a career in neuro-otology, the study of the inner ear. dix and hallpike published a landmark series in 1952 in the "proceedings of the royal society of medicine" and the "annals of otology, rhinology, and laryngology"; it described the main causes of vertigo and how to differentiate between them. they also described the eponymous dix–hallpike test, which is used to diagnose benign paroxysmal positional vertigo.