NICTA appoints bionic ear pioneer to lead new hearing research

Peter Dinham
Monday, 21 November 2011 15:31

Science - Health

The scientist who developed the bionic ear, Professor Graeme Clark, has joined Australia's Information and Communications Technology Research Centre of Excellence, NICTA, to lead a project aimed at developing technologies capable of providing new types of hearing implants that can improve various aspects of auditory perception for hearing loss patients.

NICTA CEO, Hugh Durrant-Whyte, said today that Professor Clark's appointment as Distinguished Researcher provided a unique opportunity to study the auditory neuroanatomy of the first cochlear implant (bionic ear) patient, Rod Saunders, who passed away in 2007 and donated his body to science.

'Professor Clark and his NICTA team aim to combine this detailed anatomical data with his known psychophysics to understand more about the human auditory system. A second element of the research will be an investigation of the potential to make implants more biocompatible by the use new biomaterials and embedded microelectronics,' Durrant-Whyte said.

Professor Clark, who commences at NICTA, at the beginning of December, will be working with Professor Terry Caelli, the leader of NICTA's health business team, and their work will draw on the skills of staff from NICTA's control and signal processing research group and NICTA's expertise in microelectronics and biomedical device development.

"I have been involved with hearing research for so many years, some people might think there are no more discoveries to be made, but that is so far from the truth,' Professor Clark said.

'I feel as though, in many ways, we are just at the beginning of our understanding of how hearing works. I am really excited by the potential of this project, with the support of the incredible expertise here at NICTA, to help the hearing-impaired to perceive many more sounds than are
currently possible.'

Professor Caelli said Professor Clark would bring a wealth of valuable experience to the team. 'At NICTA we have considerable expertise in the control and signal processing research area which we are eager to apply. We want to understand more about how people process auditory information, so we can help them hear more clearly.'

Tonight, Professor Clark will receive the CSL Florey Medal in the presence of 90 of his peers at the 2011 Association of Australian Medical Research Institute's annual dinner in the Mural Hall at Parliament House Canberra.