Prof. Dr Dr Birger Kollmeier, hearing researcher at the University of Oldenburg, has received the International Award of the American Academy of Audiology in Boston - one of the highest honours for international researchers in the field of audiology.
Kollmeier received the award from the world's largest audiological society "for his outstanding contributions to hearing research, psychophysics, auditory electrophysiology, hearing aid development and evidence-based hearing aid evaluation", said the Academy, explaining its decision. His research had "a very strong influence on these fields". Kollmeier's supervision of many excellent doctoral candidates, who now hold leading positions in industry and universities, was also emphasised. In addition, many of the Oldenburg scientist's ideas have been patented and incorporated into modern hearing aids.
"This honourable award fills me with great joy and I accept it on behalf of our entire interdisciplinary team," explained Kollmeier at the award ceremony. Among the several hundred guests were eight US hearing researchers with whom Kollmeier works particularly closely.
The Oldenburg scientist has already received several prestigious awards for his work, most recently the Lower Saxony Science Prize in 2011 and the Karl Küpfmüller Ring in 2009. The honour from the American Academy of Audiology is the greatest international recognition of his work to date, emphasised Kollmeier.
The physicist and physician has been researching and teaching at the University of Oldenburg since 1993 and is head of the "Medical Physics" department. He is also Scientific Director of Hörzentrum Oldenburg GmbH and the Fraunhofer Project Group for Hearing, Speech and Audio Technology. Kollmeier is the spokesperson for the "Hearing4all" cluster of excellence, which was the only cluster from Lower Saxony to be included in the current final round of the federal government's excellence competition. The decision on its success will be made in June.