Victorian researcher wins prestigious international science award for bionic ear achievements
|
8 September 2009
|
 |
Professor Graeme Clark at La Trobe University, with colleagues and cochlear implant recipient Rebecca French (to his left)
|
One of the world's major scientific prizes - the Otto Schmitt Award for exceptional contributions to advancements in medical and biological engineering - has been awarded to La Trobe University's Distinguished Professor Graeme Clark.
|
The award is made every three years by the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering which represents research organisations from more than 50 countries.
It was presented to Professor Clark at the opening session of the World Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering in Munich, Germany, for his ground-breaking research of Cochlear implants.
In his acceptance speech - The Multi-channel Cochlear Implant-Past, Present and Future - Professor Clark recognised the contributions made first at the University of Sydney, then the University of Melbourne and Eye and Ear Hospital, then by Cochlear Limited, and then through the creation of the Bionic Ear Institute.
Appointed to La Trobe University late last year, the pioneer of cochlear implant research now heads La Trobe's Graeme Clark Centre for Bionic Ear and NeuroSensory Research in Melbourne where he and his team are spearheading the development of the next generation of high-fidelity bionic ear.
The aim is to substantially enhance the audio quality of cochlear implants to a point where it may even be possible to achieve excellent musical appreciation.
The Australian developed bionic ear has already captured some 70 per cent of the world market where more than 120,000 cochlear implants have been performed in 100 countries over the past 20 years.
Accepting the award, Professor Clark highlighted how the success of the bionic ear resulted from multi-institutional and wide-ranging interdisciplinary research - in neurophysiology, neurobiology, biophysics, bioengineering, electrical engineering, surgery, psychophysics, speech science, and audiology.
“The research has helped show how the brain codes simple and complex speech sounds, how bilateral stimulation gives more directional sound, and how speech and language develop in young children,” he said.
Professor Clark said his centre is expanding existing techniques to include recordings from hundreds of brain cells simultaneously, and incorporate these advances in new biomaterials.
“Research is now being undertaken at La Trobe University to see how to produce the fine temporo-spatial patterns of nerve responses for high fidelity hearing, musical appreciation and hearing in noise, as well as the relation between spoken language and Sign Language of the Deaf,” he said.
Professor Clark's team is also examining how deafness and sensory deficits affect brain development, especially for language.
He believes the trinity of early diagnosis, hearing aids or cochlear implants, and auditory verbal education will help many more children to achieve their true potential.
Dr Otto H. Schmitt after whom the award is named, was a German scientist, who pioneered 'Biomimetics' which uses electronics to mimic nature (seen in Clark's mimicking brain function in the development of the Bionic ear). |
