Dr. Bertrand Delgutte Awarded William and Christine Hartmann Prize in Auditory Neuroscience

January 17, 2023

Dr. Bertrand Delgutte portraitBertrand Delgutte, PhD, a senior scientist in the Eaton-Peabody Laboratories (EPL) at Mass Eye and Ear, has been awarded the prestigious William and Christine Hartmann Prize in Auditory Neuroscience by the Acoustical Society of America (ASA)

The prize was established by the ASA in 2011 and recognizes research linking auditory physiology with auditory perception or behavior in humans or other animals. Dr. Delgutte, a Fellow of the ASA who also serves as Professor of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery at Harvard Medical School, is renowned for his research on how the auditory system processes biologically significant sounds, such as speech, with the goals of understanding the neural basis of auditory perception and improving hearing aids and cochlear implants. 

Dr. Delgutte joined the EPL in 1976 as a graduate student earning his PhD in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has remained at Mass Eye and Ear ever since, with the lone exception being a three-year stint with France Telecom as a research engineer. His current research focuses on the neural mechanisms that allow humans to compensate for severe distortion in speech and other sounds caused by everyday acoustic environments.

“Receiving the Hartmann Prize from the ASA is especially meaningful to me since the first scientific meeting I ever attended was an ASA meeting and much of my research has been published in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,” Dr. Delgutte said. “The mission of the prize—linking auditory physiology with auditory perception—is an apt description of my overall research goal.”

Dr. Delgutte will formally receive the prize at the Plenary Session of the Chicago ASA Meeting on May 10. In addition to receiving the prize, he will present the Auditory Neuroscience Prize Lecture during the May meeting.