Oldenburg. From a programme for early-career researchers to cutting-edge research: the Department of Medical Physics at the University of Oldenburg today celebrated its 25th anniversary with a ceremony and a symposium. Guests from the worlds of science and politics also marked the 60th birthday of the Oldenburg-based physicist and physician Prof. Dr Dr Birger Kollmeier. With his Fiebiger professorship at the time – a funding programme for early-career researchers – he and his team laid the foundations for hearing research in Oldenburg in April 1993.

“25 years of Medical Physics: a success story that is inextricably linked to the success story of the university as a whole. Hearing research in Oldenburg is characterised by thematic diversity and is highly regarded in scientific circles. It thus enjoys both national and international renown,” said Jörg Stahlmann, Vice-President for Administration and Finance at the University of Oldenburg, during the ceremony.

The work of the Department of Medical Physics at Oldenburg was also commended by the Mayor of Oldenburg, Petra Averbeck, and Prof. Dr Thomas Lenarz, Director of the Ear, Nose and Throat Clinic at Hannover Medical School (MHH) and deputy spokesperson for the Hearing4all cluster of excellence. The keynote address was delivered by Stephan Albani, Member of the Bundestag. At the symposium that followed, international scientists presented the latest findings in various fields of hearing research.

When it was established in 1993, the Department of Medical Physics – the first to combine the natural sciences with medicine – consisted of Kollmeier and his 16 staff members. Participation in a newly established Research Training Group on Psychoacoustics – funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and led by Prof. Dr Volker Mellert and Prof. Dr August Schick – gave the group a strong start. The department, which has been part of the newly established School V - School of Medicine and Health Sciences since 2012, now comprises just under 70 researchers working in five different research groups. They focus on the fundamentals of hearing and language, as well as the processes involved in the processing of acoustic signals in the human brain. The main areas of focus are psychoacoustics, neurosensorics, speech perception, signal processing in digital hearing aids and clinical hearing diagnostics. The ‘Hearing4all’ cluster of excellence is based within the department, as are the ‘Hearing Acoustics’ Collaborative Research Centre, recently approved by the DFG, and the DFG Research Group ‘Individualised Hearing Acoustics’, which was launched in 2012.

Milestones over the past 25 years include participation in the Collaborative Research Centres ‘Neurocognition’ (1996–2006) and ‘The Active Ear’ (2005–2017), as well as the establishment of the Fraunhofer Project Group for Hearing, Speech and Audio Technology and the international Research Training Group ‘Neurosensorics’ (2002–2009). In 1996, the University and the Evangelical Hospital founded Hörzentrum Oldenburg GmbH, an affiliated Institute of the University. This was followed in 1999 by the establishment of the HörTech gGmbH Centre of Excellence, which links research, development and industry. Since 2002, The Haus des Hörens, with its acoustic laboratories, has provided ideal conditions for research and work. More than 60 researchers have completed their doctorates in Medical Physics since 1993. In addition, the degree programmes ‘Hearing Technology and Audiology’ and – last year – ‘Physics, Technology, Medicine’ were introduced.

Stahlmann emphasised that this success story is, without a doubt, particularly closely linked to Birger Kollmeier. “People like Professor Kollmeier are of inestimable value to science and a stroke of luck for a university.”

Kollmeier is the spokesperson for the ‘Hearing4all’ cluster of excellence and Director of the Department of Medical Physics and Acoustics at the university. He also serves, amongst other roles, as Scientific Director of HörTech, Hörzentrum Oldenburg GmbH and the Fraunhofer Project Group for Hearing, Speech and Audio Technology. Kollmeier has received numerous prestigious awards for his work, including the Karl-Küpfmüller-Ring from Darmstadt Technical University (2009), the Lower Saxony Science Prize (2011), the International Award from the American Academy of Audiology (2012) and – jointly with the Oldenburg psychoacoustician Prof. Dr Volker Hohmann and Dr Torsten Niederdränk (Siemens AG) – the German Future Prize (Federal President’s Prize for Technology and Innovation, 2012). In September 2017, he was awarded the Glocker Medal, the highest honour of the German Society for Medical Physics (DGMP). He serves on the Executive Board of the European Federation of Audiological Societies (EFAS) as ‘Incoming President’.