Audiology

Professor Carolyn Brown

Carolyn Brown is an audiologist and a Professor at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa. She currently holds joint appointments in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders and the Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery. Her teaching and research expertise is in the area of cochlear implants and auditory evoked potentials. She has been part of the Electrophysiology section of the Iowa Cochlear Implant Center Grant for the past 25 years and has published more than 50 peer reviewed studies.

Professor Harvey Dillon

Dr Dillon is Director of Research at the National Acoustic Laboratories in Sydney. Dr Dillon has performed research into many aspects of hearing aids. At various times he has also been responsible for the design of hearing aids and for the co-ordination of clinical service provision. Most recently, his research has concerned signal processing schemes for hearing aids, prescription of hearing aids, evaluating the effectiveness of rehabilitation, electrophysiological assessment, auditory processing disorders, and methods for preventing hearing loss. Dr Dillon is the author of over 160 scientific publications and a text book on hearing aids and is frequently invited to give keynote addresses at international conferences. He has been closely associated with the various NAL prescription rules, COSI outcomes evaluation, the trainable hearing aid, the LiSN-S test of spatial hearing loss, and clinical cortical response testing.

Doctor Bob Shannon

Bob Shannon has been researching auditory perception and psychoacoustics for more than 30 years. He joined the House Ear Institute as head of its Department of Auditory Implants and Perception Research in 1989 to advance studies in cochlear and auditory brainstem implants. Since that time, Dr. Shannon has led research at the Institute ranging from the design of speech processors for auditory prostheses, to temporal processing in cochlear implants and neural patterns of activation resulting from electrical stimulation of the inner ear, the hearing nerve and the cochlear nucleus. Most recently, Dr. Shannon has been a primary investigator on research studies that advance the technology and effectiveness of the auditory brainstem implant (ABI), an auditory prosthesis that was invented and developed at the House Ear Institute for people who have a non-functioning auditory nerve. The ABI is the first device approved by the FDA for prosthetic electrical stimulation of the human brainstem.

Professor Peter Thorne
Peter Thorne holds a personal chair at the University of Auckland. He has published widely in the area of inner ear homeostasis and the effects of noise on hearing, which includes studies on the mechanisms of noise injury in animals and the epidemiology and prevention of noise-induced hearing loss in humans. He led the establishment of the Section of Audiology at the University of Auckland and Audiology professional training through the establishment of the Master of Audiology degree. He has held senior positions in the University of Auckland including Head of both the School of Medical Sciences and School of Population Health. He contributes substantially to the hearing impaired community, serving as the President of the National Foundation for the Deaf and was one of lead advocates for the establishment of Newborn Hearing Screening and chaired the Newborn Hearing Screening Implementation Advisory Group for the National Screening Unit. He was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2009.

Doctor Warwick Williams
Warwick Williams, Senior Research Engineer at the National Acoustic Laboratories in Australia, has been involved with noise research for many years. His research areas of interest include noise exposure and noise exposure reduction, barriers to noise exposure reduction, education and prevention activities, the awareness and effectiveness of hearing health programmes, and hearing protector use and effectiveness. He is an Australian representative on several working groups and committees for the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) and Standards Australia.