Oldenburg. It started on 1 April 1993: the "Medical Physics" department at the University of Oldenburg. From today's perspective, its beginnings seem rather modest: a total of 16 employees, including the newly appointed physicist and physician Prof Dr Dr Birger Kollmeier, and a newly established Research Training Group on psychoacoustics funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The basis for the new department, which was the first to combine the natural sciences with medicine, had been created. Today, representatives from science, politics, society and business honoured the development of the last 20 years with a ceremony at The Haus des Hörens. "Medical Physics with Professor Kollmeier and Professor Hohmann at the helm is an example of the dynamic development of our still young university," explained University President Prof Dr Babette Simon. In addition to outstanding scientific expertise, Kollmeier and his team have shown great creativity and initiative in establishing networked structures. Today, basic research is just as closely linked to applied research as university science is to industrial partners, said Simon. Guests at the ceremony included Oldenburg's Mayor Germaid Eilers-Dörfler, former Lower Saxony Science Minister Lutz Stratmann, Dr Martin Klinkel, Head of Research & Development at Kind Hörgeräte, as well as numerous graduates of Medical Physics. Medical Physics is dedicated to the fundamentals of hearing and speech as well as processes of medical signal processing in the human brain. The focus is on psychoacoustics, neurosensory technology and clinical hearing diagnostics, as well as in the field of neurocognition and medical radiation physics. Hearing research, which has been cooperating closely with the three Oldenburg hospitals for many years, has also strongly promoted the establishment of the European Medical School Oldenburg-Groningen. Medical physics is one of the most important and profile-defining areas of the university today, emphasised Simon. "The acoustician Prof Dr Volker Mellert and the psychologist Prof Dr August Schick laid the foundation for the success of medical physics in Oldenburg back then," explained Prof Dr Dr Birger Kollmeier, head of the department. A lot has happened since then, and research activities and staff numbers have developed rapidly. Medical Physics is now part of the newly founded School of Medicine and Health Sciences with around 40 scientists. "In the past 20 years alone, almost 50 scientists have completed their doctorates in the department. Around half of them work in the international hearing aid industry - some in management positions. They contribute to the excellent reputation of hearing research in Oldenburg," Kollmeier said happily. Important cornerstones of medical physics were the establishment of the special research centres "Neurocognition" (1996-2006) and "Active Hearing" (since 2005) as well as the Fraunhofer Project Group for Hearing, Speech and Audio Technology. In 1996, the University and the Protestant Hospital founded the Oldenburg Hearing Centre. This was followed in 1999 by the establishment of the HörTech Center of Competence, which links research, development and industry as a centre for hearing aid system technology. The Haus des Hörens, with its acoustic laboratories, has offered scientists and students ideal research and working conditions since 2002. Recent successes in medical physics include the "Hearing4all" cluster of excellence, which was successful in the Excellence Initiative of the federal and state governments. Under the leadership of the University of Oldenburg, the scientists want to significantly improve the communication situation of hearing-impaired people - whether at work, in traffic or at home. In November last year, Kollmeier, Oldenburg hearing researcher Prof Dr Volker Hohmann and Dr Torsten Niederdränk from Siemens AG received the German Future Prize, which is endowed with 250,000 euros. Federal President Joachim Gauck presented the award to the team for their outstanding developments in the field of binaural hearing and the associated improvement of hearing technology systems. "We are proud of what we have achieved and look forward to the current challenges and future developments arising from the cluster of excellence and our position as a mediator between the natural sciences and medicine in the new School of Medicine," emphasised Kollmeier.

[05.04.2013]