![\"\"](\"https:\/\/aro.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/SchreinerPhoto.jpeg\")
Christoph Eberhard Schreiner grew up in a small village in the woods of Northern Germany where his father practiced medicine. Living in a forest and with frequent outings accompanying his father and brother to observe wildlife at dusk and dawn instilled in him a life-long love of nature. Unsurprisingly, Christoph\u2019s favorite subject in high school was biology, closely followed by math and physics. When it was time to select a professional field, however, the quantitative side won out and he started in 1969 to study physics at the University of G\u00f6ttingen in Lower Saxony.\u00a0 Soon, he joined the Third Institute of Physics working under the tutelage of Prof. Manfred R. Schroeder, his first influential mentor. Prof. Schroeder worked on a wide range of topics, using innovative applications of mathematics to speech, hearing, and concert hall acoustics. There, Christoph learned rigorous quantitative methods and had his first encounter with the concept of modulation transfer functions.\u00a0 However, several projects in the Institute also had links to biology and he chose to write his Masters and Doctoral theses on the psychophysics of the interactions of non-simultaneously presented sounds. \u00a0This period established his life-long fascination with the sense of hearing.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/aro.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Yin_Tom_lab14_9465-17748-jeff-miller-300x200-1.jpg\")
Tom Chi Tien Yin was born in Kunming, China where his parents had fled to escape the Japanese invasion of northern China before World War II. In 1948 the family emigrated to the US and settled in Denver, CO where his parents were graduate students. When the Communists defeated the Nationalists in China in 1949, the family decided not to return to China. Tom attended public schools in Denver and Aurora, CO and then went to Princeton University, graduating with a major in Electrical Engineering. He then went to graduate school in the same field at the University of Michigan.<\/span><\/p>\nLynne Werner, PhD<\/span><\/h2>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/aro.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Lynne-Werner-Picture.jpg\")
Lynne Ann Werner was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The oldest of seven children, she describes her childhood as \u201cunremarkable.\u201d She received her bachelor\u2019s degree from Northwestern University. Having sampled majors in biology, chemistry, education, and anthropology, she finally settled on psychology.<\/span><\/p>\nFollowing graduation, Lynne stayed in the Chicago area and began graduate school at Loyola University of Chicago, in the lab of Debbie Holmes, a developmental psychologist working mostly on visual perceptual development. In the Holmes lab she began her lifelong adventure toward discovering what human infants hear, completing a dissertation entitled \u201cAuditory frequency analysis in infancy\u201d in addition to several other papers on visual attention and a neurophysiology study on the goldfish 8th nerve with Richard Fay. Lynne then took a position as Assistant Professor of Psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University. Soon after that she was enticed to move her lab to the University of Virginia, and then in 1986 she moved to the University of Washington, where she rapidly rose to Full Professor with Tenure. She officially retired and became Professor Emeritus in 2017, but still continues to mentor junior scientists and to collaborate on research in other labs.<\/span><\/p>\nEarly in her career, Lynne began running in her efforts to quit smoking. She ran her first marathon a year later and has since run nearly 200 marathons and ultramarathons. She no longer smokes. Lynne\u2019s other interests include baseball, classical music and opera, theater, train travel, beer,<\/span>
cooking, camping, and hiking. Lynne has been married to David Olsho for 48 years. David is also a runner. They have two daughters: Lauren Olsho is a health economist with a research focus on nutrition and risky behavior; Alexis Olsho is a researcher in physics education. Lynne and David have three grandchildren, Daisy, Sidney, and Willa, all of whom she describes as \u201csweet\u201d, \u201csmart,\u201d and \u201cgood runners\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\nWhen Lynne started her work on infant hearing in the 1980s, there were few quantitative behavioral data on young infants. There were careful observations of responses to a variety of acoustic stimuli, and there were studies based on the habituation of infant responses to sound that allowed researchers to determine whether infants could discriminate between two quite different sounds. However, these paradigms did not allow researchers to quantify infant sensitivity or to compare infants and adults directly. The\u00a0 conditioned head-turn procedure developed by researchers at the University of Washington was a great advance that<\/span>
allowed for estimation of both detection and discrimination thresholds in the clinic as well as in the lab. Unfortunately, the conditioned head-turn technique does not yield reliable results for infants younger than about 6 months of age.<\/span><\/p>\nIn 1987, Lynne and her colleagues introduced a major paradigm shift in the study of infant hearing, the Observerbased Psychophysical Procedure (OPP). This procedure combines the conditioned head-turn technique and the forced-choice preferential looking procedure, developed for infant vision studies by Davida Teller at University of Washington. This method actually tests the ability of a trained observer to detect a sound or a change in a sound using only the infant\u2019s behavior as evidence. It is incredibly powerful and has allowed the collection of reliable psychophysical data on a large variety of acoustic parameters in normal-hearing and hearing-impaired infants as young as a few weeks old. <\/span><\/p>\nArmed with this new, powerful methodology, Lynne\u2019s lab produced a series of remarkable studies that told us how infants detect, discriminate, or categorize acoustic stimuli. Among the important findings of her experiments, is that while some infant perceptual skills are surprisingly mature by 6 months of age (e.g., high frequency discrimination, low frequency resolution, and pitch categorization), other percepts remain immature, even as infants begin to acquire their first words (e.g., gap detection and spectral ripple discrimination). During this period, Lynne not only trained her students in OPP, but opened her lab to colleagues from the US and abroad who learned the OPP procedure and applied it to a variety of research questions. It is not an overstatement to say the research from Lynne\u2019s lab is the pillar upon which Developmental Psychoacoustics is built.<\/span><\/p>\nAge-related improvements in auditory performance were sometimes attributed to failures of attention, memory, or general \u201cefficiency\u201d. While such effects were considered uninteresting to some hearing researchers, Lynne and the members of her lab demonstrated that such cognitive factors had a direct effect of infants\u2019 perception. For example, one reason that infants are worse than adults at detecting a tone in noise is that while adults listen selectively for a particular frequency, infants listen broadly across frequency. One consequence is that infants are actually better than adults at detecting unexpected tones. The idea that listening strategy changes during infancy and childhood has broad implications for our understanding of the development of speech perception and for pediatric audiology. <\/span><\/p>\nAnother facet of Lynne\u2019s research contribution is her attempts to interpret her behavioral results in the context of our emerging understanding of the physiology and pharmacology of the auditory periphery and the brain. This is apparent in\u00a0 her early work, in her collaborations relating psychophysical measures to conductive, cochlear and brainstem measures in infants, and in her recent studies of hearing-impaired children. It is most apparent in her book entitled \u201cHuman Auditory Development\u201d and in the many superb chapters she has authored and co-authored. <\/span><\/p>\nLynne\u2019s work has been widely recognized. Her R01 grant \u201cDevelopment of Frequency Resolution\u201d was continuously funded, first by NINCDS then by NIDCD, from 1985 to 2018. She was elected a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America in 2002. Since arriving at the University of Washington she has served as the research advisor to 26 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. She was recognized as Outstanding Mentor by the Student Council of the Acoustical Society in 2018.<\/span><\/p>\nFinally, in order to understand what makes Lynne Werner an outstanding recipient of the 2020 ARO Award of Merit, it is important to understand her commitment to her colleagues and the fields of Auditory Science. She served on or chaired more than 30 university and national committees and was principal investigator on conference grants, core grants, and a training grant. While this shows her commitment and leadership outside the lab, her commitment to her colleagues has always been a top priority. We have never seen her turn down a request to help with a grant or a paper, or provide advice, or attend a practice talk. Every letter for this nomination stressed Lynne\u2019s commitment as a mentor and colleague and her leadership as a role model for women in science. Her students and colleagues are thrilled that Lynne Ann Werner is receiving the Award of Merit from the Association for Research in Otolaryngology. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=\"1\" admin_label=\"Testimonial Section\" _builder_version=\"4.27.4\" background_color=\"#0E5688\" custom_margin=\"||||false|false\" custom_padding=\"37px||37px||true|\" locked=\"off\" global_colors_info=\"{}\"][et_pb_row column_structure=\"1_4,3_4\" use_custom_gutter=\"on\" gutter_width=\"2\" make_equal=\"on\" _builder_version=\"4.27.4\" _module_preset=\"default\" custom_margin=\"|auto||105px|false|false\" custom_padding=\"6px||0px||false|false\" global_colors_info=\"{}\"][et_pb_column type=\"1_4\" _builder_version=\"4.27.2\" _module_preset=\"default\" global_colors_info=\"{}\"][et_pb_icon font_icon=\"||fa||900\" icon_color=\"#FAA82A\" _builder_version=\"4.27.4\" _module_preset=\"default\" global_colors_info=\"{}\"][\/et_pb_icon][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=\"3_4\" _builder_version=\"4.27.4\" _module_preset=\"default\" background_color=\"#C9BDEF\" custom_padding=\"|||25px|false|false\" custom_css_main_element=\"align-items: flex-end;\" global_colors_info=\"{}\"][et_pb_heading title=\"2019 ARO Award of Merit\" _builder_version=\"4.27.4\" _module_preset=\"default\" title_level=\"h2\" title_font=\"|700||on|||||\" title_text_align=\"left\" title_text_color=\"gcid-9b607bfd-ddfe-4f74-b296-5e8b18c0f423\" title_font_size=\"29px\" title_letter_spacing=\"5px\" max_width=\"1366px\" custom_margin=\"0px||0px||true|false\" custom_padding=\"19px||8px||false|false\" title_text_align_tablet=\"center\" title_text_align_phone=\"center\" title_text_align_last_edited=\"off|desktop\" title_font_size_tablet=\"44px\" title_font_size_phone=\"30px\" title_font_size_last_edited=\"on|tablet\" title_text_shadow_style=\"preset1\" border_color_right=\"#FAA82A\" locked=\"off\" global_colors_info=\"{%22gcid-9b607bfd-ddfe-4f74-b296-5e8b18c0f423%22:%91%22title_text_color%22%93}\"][\/et_pb_heading][et_pb_cta _builder_version=\"4.27.4\" _module_preset=\"default\" body_font_size=\"16px\" background_color=\"#093049\" custom_padding=\"16px||1px|||\" global_colors_info=\"{}\"]<\/p>\n
The ARO Award of Merit recognizes an individual who has made substantial scientific achievements in and contributions to the fields encompassed by otolaryngology. Candidates should be able to present a talk as part of the Award ceremony at the Midwinter Meeting.<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_cta][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=\"1\" admin_label=\"section\" _builder_version=\"4.27.4\" background_color=\"#E6E8E6\" custom_padding=\"28px|||||\" locked=\"off\" global_colors_info=\"{}\"][et_pb_row admin_label=\"row\" _builder_version=\"4.16\" background_size=\"initial\" background_position=\"top_left\" background_repeat=\"repeat\" global_colors_info=\"{}\"][et_pb_column type=\"4_4\" _builder_version=\"4.16\" custom_padding=\"|||\" global_colors_info=\"{}\" custom_padding__hover=\"|||\"][et_pb_text admin_label=\"Text\" _builder_version=\"4.27.4\" text_text_color=\"#0E5688\" background_size=\"initial\" background_position=\"top_left\" background_repeat=\"repeat\" global_colors_info=\"{}\"]<\/p>\n
\n\nPeter M. Narins, PhD<\/span><\/h2>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/aro.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/17-Narins-Peter-200x300.jpg\")
<\/span><\/p>\nInternationally renowned for his elegant research and eloquent lectures, Peter Narins has been selected for the 2019 ARO Award of Merit for his significant impact on the field of auditory neuroscience.\u00a0 Peter received his B.S. and Master\u2019s in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University.\u00a0 After volunteering for three years with the Peace Corps in Chile, he returned to Cornell to earn his Ph.D. in Neurobiology and Behavior under the supervision of Robert R. Capranica.\u00a0 He then moved to the University of Keele for a\u00a0postdoctoral fellowship\u00a0to learn mammalian\u00a0auditory physiology with Edward\u00a0F. Evans, and later returned to the United States to join the\u00a0faculty\u00a0at UCLA,\u00a0where\u00a0he\u00a0rapidly rose through the ranks to become\u00a0Distinguished Professor of\u00a0Integrative\u00a0Biology\u00a0&\u00a0Physiology\u00a0and\u00a0of Ecology\u00a0&\u00a0Evolutionary\u00a0Biology.\u00a0 Peter\u2019s numerous honors and awards include election to the rank of Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and four scientific societies -- the Acoustical Society of America, the Animal Behavior Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the International Society for Neuroethology.\u00a0 He has been named a Grass Fellow at Woods Hole, and has also been the recipient of a Senior Scientist Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and an Award from the Fulbright Scholar Program.\u00a0 Peter has also served the International Society for Neuroethology as Council Member, Treasurer, and President.\u00a0\u00a0He is an Honorary Member of the Cuban Zoological Society and Professor\u00a0Ad Honorem<\/em>\u00a0at the University of the Republic, Montevideo, Uruguay.<\/span><\/p>\nAt the cornerstone of Peter\u2019s major scientific\u00a0contributions is the\u00a0application of\u00a0principles\u00a0from engineering\u00a0to\u00a0the\u00a0study\u00a0of\u00a0hearing.\u00a0\u00a0Using anuran amphibians (frogs and toads) as his primary experimental model, he\u00a0pioneered a\u00a0research\u00a0strategy\u00a0that integrated an analysis of\u00a0the\u00a0mechanics\u00a0and physiology\u00a0of hearing\u00a0in\u00a0the\u00a0well-controlled laboratory\u00a0setting\u00a0with\u00a0elegantly-designed\u00a0field\u00a0experiments\u00a0in\u00a0the\u00a0acoustically-messy\u00a0and\u00a0complex\u00a0real world environments in which\u00a0animals actually\u00a0have\u00a0to\u00a0hear, listen,\u00a0and\u00a0act.\u00a0\u00a0By this approach, he showed definitively what was once considered to be a \u201csimple\u201d ear is actually quite complex and reveals many surprises.\u00a0\u00a0As just one example, Peter\u00a0developed a method based on laser Doppler interferometry to measure the vibrations of the eardrum of the Puerto Rican coqui frog in response to ambient and self-generated sounds. This led to the discovery of the mechanism that prevents the inner ear from being overstimulated when the frog produces long, almost uninterrupted series of advertisement calls at intensities of more than 110 dB SPL.\u00a0 In a series of painstaking measurements, Peter discovered that sounds generated by the vocal cords, after being radiated from the vocal sac, impinge both on the inner and on the outer surfaces of the tympanic membrane.\u00a0 If the sounds arrive nearly in phase, then the tympanic membrane does not move much, even when stimulated with sounds of high intensity.\u00a0 To verify the idea that the frog\u2019s ear acts as a pressure-gradient receiver, Peter then transported his laser vibrometer into the Puerto Rican rain forest, and in a truly arduous and elegant endeavor repeated the same delicate measurements in frogs engaged in natural chorusing behaviors.\u00a0 This series of experiments has stimulated similar research in reptiles and birds, and it is now believed that a pressure-gradient receiver represents the original rather than the derived design of the vertebrate ear.<\/span><\/p>\nPeter\u2019s scientific efforts have produced a series of unique and surprising discoveries.\u00a0 Again using laser vibrometry, he was the first to show that\u00a0the coqui\u00a0frog\u00a0can detect sounds, not only through its tympanic membrane, but also\u00a0through its body\u00a0walls (an extratympanic pathway).\u00a0 He\u00a0was the\u00a0first\u00a0to provide neurophysiological evidence suggesting that\u00a0the\u00a0amphibian papilla in\u00a0the\u00a0frog\u2019s inner\u00a0ear\u00a0may\u00a0support a\u00a0mechanical\u00a0traveling wave on its tectorial membrane,\u00a0an idea\u00a0initially\u00a0rejected because\u00a0this animal lacks\u00a0a\u00a0basilar membrane with the usual tapered dimensions from base-to-apex.\u00a0 He\u00a0was the\u00a0first\u00a0to quantify similarities\u00a0and differences in phase-locking\u00a0properties of\u00a0amphibian\u00a0and mammalian\u00a0auditory\u00a0nerve fibers, an important finding for understanding the evolution and operation of a time-coding mechanism in the inner ear.\u00a0Peter and his team also demonstrated temperature-dependence of auditory nerve response properties and two-tone rate suppression in the frog.\u00a0 This work not only contributed to our understanding of auditory processing in vertebrates, but also stimulated another line of investigation, namely the contribution of stochastic resonance to stimulus detection.\u00a0 He took advantage of the observation that temperature affects noise in the nervous system to systematically measure auditory detection under experimentally controlled noise levels. This work offers the compelling insight that temperature (and noise) can affect information transfer in the anuran peripheral auditory system.\u00a0Going back to the field, Peter showed that male white-lipped frogs use seismic \u201cthumps\u201d as well as advertisement calls to communicate within choruses.\u00a0 Following up this observation with electrophysiological experiments in a long and fruitful collaboration with Ted Lewis, he then demonstrated that the inner ears of these frogs are much more sensitive to seismic\u00a0signals than expected from research with other terrestrial animals.\u00a0 In a parallel study of seismic communication with Ted, Dr. Narins demonstrated that the functionally blind Namib Desert golden mole uses seismic cues alone to locate food sources.<\/span><\/p>\nPeter\u00a0designed and implemented electromechanical robotic models to demonstrate that a\u00a0highly territorial South American dendrobatid frog uses a combination of acoustic cues (advertisement calls) and visual signals (vocal-sac pulsations) to evoke aggressive behavior.\u00a0 In a landmark field study, Peter and his students demonstrated that both the pitch and the timing of the calls of the Puerto Rican Coqui treefrog change in a similar fashion along an altitudinal gradient. By recording DPOAEs from frogs captured at different altitudes on a tropical mountain, they demonstrated that the call frequencies and auditory tuning are closely matched at all altitudes.\u00a0 Moreover, in a set of field experiments spanning a 23-year period, Peter and his team demonstrated that the spectral and temporal parameters of the calls of the Puerto Rican Coqui have shifted in the amount and direction consistent with the observed temperature rise in Puerto Rico over that same period.\u00a0 These results formed the basis of an argument that minute changes in frog calls over time can be used for monitoring global warming.\u00a0\u00a0And\u00a0finally,\u00a0he along with Albert Feng were\u00a0the leaders of\u00a0an international\u00a0team of scientists\u00a0that made\u00a0the extraordinary discovery\u00a0that the concave-eared torrent frog,\u00a0a species living in central China, produces and hears ultrasound to avoid masking from the intense broadband noise generated by surrounding waterfalls.\u00a0 This finding was truly astonishing, as most frogs and toads communicate and hear at frequencies below 5 kHz.\u00a0 Peter and colleagues have now identified other species of frogs in Asia that similarly communicate in the ultrasound range.<\/span><\/p>\nAs a faculty member, Peter has been a champion of early career scientists around the world; he has taught and continues to teach courses and mentored graduate students, postdocs, and young faculty in the U.S., Cuba, Europe, Asia, and South America.\u00a0 He is a superb classroom teacher, as is evident from his numerous teaching awards from UCLA.\u00a0 He runs a vibrant and productive laboratory and has developed collaborations with scientists all over the world.\u00a0 He has also served the auditory community through his extensive editorial work.\u00a0\u00a0He\u00a0is\u00a0highly\u00a0respected,\u00a0not only as a scientist and educator, but also\u00a0as a kind,\u00a0forthright, and loyal friend, with\u00a0the\u00a0utmost\u00a0integrity.<\/span><\/p>\nPeter has been married for nearly 50 years to Olivia Gubler, whom he met while serving with the Peace Corps in Chile.\u00a0 Peter and Olivia have two married children, Tom and Astrid, two grandchildren, Nicole and Ryan, and a third on the way.\u00a0 Peter enjoys traveling to places that are off-the-beaten track, Travis-picking on the guitar, amateur radio communication, especially using Morse Code, birding, frogging and spending time with his growing family.<\/span><\/p>\nWe congratulate Peter on this well-deserved honor.<\/span><\/p>\nAndrea Megela Simmons<\/span>
Brown University<\/span><\/p>\nCynthia F. Moss<\/span>
Johns Hopkins University<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=\"4.27.4\" _module_preset=\"default\" global_colors_info=\"{}\"][et_pb_column type=\"4_4\" _builder_version=\"4.27.4\" _module_preset=\"default\" global_colors_info=\"{}\"][et_pb_button button_url=\"https:\/\/aro.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/ARO-Award-of-Merit-Past-Winners.pdf\" url_new_window=\"on\" button_text=\"Past Award of Merit Recipients\" button_alignment=\"center\" _builder_version=\"4.27.4\" _module_preset=\"default\" custom_button=\"on\" button_text_size=\"16px\" button_text_color=\"#093049\" button_bg_color=\"#FAA82A\" button_border_radius=\"25px\" button_font=\"--et_global_heading_font|700||on|||||\" button_use_icon=\"off\" custom_margin=\"||-2px||false|false\" custom_padding=\"|25px||25px|false|false\" global_colors_info=\"{}\"][\/et_pb_button][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The ARO Award of Merit recognizes an individual who has made substantial scientific achievements in and contributions to the fields encompassed by otolaryngology. Candidates should be able to present a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":14,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"![\"\"](\"https:\/\/aro.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Wu-headshot-246x300.jpg\")
Doris Wu, Ph.D.<\/strong><\/span><\/span>\r\n\r\nDoris Wu grew up in Hong Kong, where her mother was a grade-school teacher and her father a civil servant. She has loved biology ever since high school and she came to the United States for college, majoring in Biology and Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point.\u00a0 Still passionate about biology but unsure about her next career move after graduation, she worked as a laboratory technician at the Department of Physiology, School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, where she later obtained her master\u2019s degree in 1978, studying endocrinology of the reproductive system. She then moved across town to the University of California - Los Angeles (UCLA) to further her graduate work in studying neuronal and glia interactions. Doris received her PhD from now the Department of Neurobiology in 1983. After a brief postdoctoral fellowship at the Mental Retardation Center at UCLA, she joined Dr. Constance Cepko\u2019s laboratory at the Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School as a postdoctoral fellow. There, she studied cell type determination in the mammalian retina, focusing on the development of a subtype of amacrine cells.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nAs a sensory system developmental neurobiologist, Doris was drawn to the beauty and complexity of the inner ear structure and although she had never received formal training in this field, she accepted her first independent position at the Intramural program of NIDCD in 1993. She set out to decipher the molecular mechanisms underlying the formation of the inner ear. She rose through the ranks at the NIH, and now holds the position of Chief in the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, NIDCD. She views her scientific journey as deeply rewarding and complementary to that of many others in the development field who have identified some of the key genes and molecular pathways underlying the formation of this amazing organ. The knowledge gained from these discoveries continues to provide the basis for hair cell regeneration research and for understanding the etiology of hereditary deafness.<\/span>\r\n\r\nDoris has been a single mom since her son was 10 months old. Managing work and family life balance was a challenge when her son was growing up. Now, when she is not visiting her 102-year-old mother in Hong Kong, she enjoys cooking and taking walks while talking to life-long friends in her spare time.<\/span>","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5795","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aro.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aro.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aro.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aro.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aro.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aro.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5795\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aro.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aro.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Lynne Ann Werner was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The oldest of seven children, she describes her childhood as \u201cunremarkable.\u201d She received her bachelor\u2019s degree from Northwestern University. Having sampled majors in biology, chemistry, education, and anthropology, she finally settled on psychology.<\/span><\/p>\nFollowing graduation, Lynne stayed in the Chicago area and began graduate school at Loyola University of Chicago, in the lab of Debbie Holmes, a developmental psychologist working mostly on visual perceptual development. In the Holmes lab she began her lifelong adventure toward discovering what human infants hear, completing a dissertation entitled \u201cAuditory frequency analysis in infancy\u201d in addition to several other papers on visual attention and a neurophysiology study on the goldfish 8th nerve with Richard Fay. Lynne then took a position as Assistant Professor of Psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University. Soon after that she was enticed to move her lab to the University of Virginia, and then in 1986 she moved to the University of Washington, where she rapidly rose to Full Professor with Tenure. She officially retired and became Professor Emeritus in 2017, but still continues to mentor junior scientists and to collaborate on research in other labs.<\/span><\/p>\n Early in her career, Lynne began running in her efforts to quit smoking. She ran her first marathon a year later and has since run nearly 200 marathons and ultramarathons. She no longer smokes. Lynne\u2019s other interests include baseball, classical music and opera, theater, train travel, beer,<\/span> When Lynne started her work on infant hearing in the 1980s, there were few quantitative behavioral data on young infants. There were careful observations of responses to a variety of acoustic stimuli, and there were studies based on the habituation of infant responses to sound that allowed researchers to determine whether infants could discriminate between two quite different sounds. However, these paradigms did not allow researchers to quantify infant sensitivity or to compare infants and adults directly. The\u00a0 conditioned head-turn procedure developed by researchers at the University of Washington was a great advance that<\/span> In 1987, Lynne and her colleagues introduced a major paradigm shift in the study of infant hearing, the Observerbased Psychophysical Procedure (OPP). This procedure combines the conditioned head-turn technique and the forced-choice preferential looking procedure, developed for infant vision studies by Davida Teller at University of Washington. This method actually tests the ability of a trained observer to detect a sound or a change in a sound using only the infant\u2019s behavior as evidence. It is incredibly powerful and has allowed the collection of reliable psychophysical data on a large variety of acoustic parameters in normal-hearing and hearing-impaired infants as young as a few weeks old. <\/span><\/p>\n Armed with this new, powerful methodology, Lynne\u2019s lab produced a series of remarkable studies that told us how infants detect, discriminate, or categorize acoustic stimuli. Among the important findings of her experiments, is that while some infant perceptual skills are surprisingly mature by 6 months of age (e.g., high frequency discrimination, low frequency resolution, and pitch categorization), other percepts remain immature, even as infants begin to acquire their first words (e.g., gap detection and spectral ripple discrimination). During this period, Lynne not only trained her students in OPP, but opened her lab to colleagues from the US and abroad who learned the OPP procedure and applied it to a variety of research questions. It is not an overstatement to say the research from Lynne\u2019s lab is the pillar upon which Developmental Psychoacoustics is built.<\/span><\/p>\n Age-related improvements in auditory performance were sometimes attributed to failures of attention, memory, or general \u201cefficiency\u201d. While such effects were considered uninteresting to some hearing researchers, Lynne and the members of her lab demonstrated that such cognitive factors had a direct effect of infants\u2019 perception. For example, one reason that infants are worse than adults at detecting a tone in noise is that while adults listen selectively for a particular frequency, infants listen broadly across frequency. One consequence is that infants are actually better than adults at detecting unexpected tones. The idea that listening strategy changes during infancy and childhood has broad implications for our understanding of the development of speech perception and for pediatric audiology. <\/span><\/p>\n Another facet of Lynne\u2019s research contribution is her attempts to interpret her behavioral results in the context of our emerging understanding of the physiology and pharmacology of the auditory periphery and the brain. This is apparent in\u00a0 her early work, in her collaborations relating psychophysical measures to conductive, cochlear and brainstem measures in infants, and in her recent studies of hearing-impaired children. It is most apparent in her book entitled \u201cHuman Auditory Development\u201d and in the many superb chapters she has authored and co-authored. <\/span><\/p>\n Lynne\u2019s work has been widely recognized. Her R01 grant \u201cDevelopment of Frequency Resolution\u201d was continuously funded, first by NINCDS then by NIDCD, from 1985 to 2018. She was elected a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America in 2002. Since arriving at the University of Washington she has served as the research advisor to 26 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. She was recognized as Outstanding Mentor by the Student Council of the Acoustical Society in 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n Finally, in order to understand what makes Lynne Werner an outstanding recipient of the 2020 ARO Award of Merit, it is important to understand her commitment to her colleagues and the fields of Auditory Science. She served on or chaired more than 30 university and national committees and was principal investigator on conference grants, core grants, and a training grant. While this shows her commitment and leadership outside the lab, her commitment to her colleagues has always been a top priority. We have never seen her turn down a request to help with a grant or a paper, or provide advice, or attend a practice talk. Every letter for this nomination stressed Lynne\u2019s commitment as a mentor and colleague and her leadership as a role model for women in science. Her students and colleagues are thrilled that Lynne Ann Werner is receiving the Award of Merit from the Association for Research in Otolaryngology. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=\"1\" admin_label=\"Testimonial Section\" _builder_version=\"4.27.4\" background_color=\"#0E5688\" custom_margin=\"||||false|false\" custom_padding=\"37px||37px||true|\" locked=\"off\" global_colors_info=\"{}\"][et_pb_row column_structure=\"1_4,3_4\" use_custom_gutter=\"on\" gutter_width=\"2\" make_equal=\"on\" _builder_version=\"4.27.4\" _module_preset=\"default\" custom_margin=\"|auto||105px|false|false\" custom_padding=\"6px||0px||false|false\" global_colors_info=\"{}\"][et_pb_column type=\"1_4\" _builder_version=\"4.27.2\" _module_preset=\"default\" global_colors_info=\"{}\"][et_pb_icon font_icon=\"||fa||900\" icon_color=\"#FAA82A\" _builder_version=\"4.27.4\" _module_preset=\"default\" global_colors_info=\"{}\"][\/et_pb_icon][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=\"3_4\" _builder_version=\"4.27.4\" _module_preset=\"default\" background_color=\"#C9BDEF\" custom_padding=\"|||25px|false|false\" custom_css_main_element=\"align-items: flex-end;\" global_colors_info=\"{}\"][et_pb_heading title=\"2019 ARO Award of Merit\" _builder_version=\"4.27.4\" _module_preset=\"default\" title_level=\"h2\" title_font=\"|700||on|||||\" title_text_align=\"left\" title_text_color=\"gcid-9b607bfd-ddfe-4f74-b296-5e8b18c0f423\" title_font_size=\"29px\" title_letter_spacing=\"5px\" max_width=\"1366px\" custom_margin=\"0px||0px||true|false\" custom_padding=\"19px||8px||false|false\" title_text_align_tablet=\"center\" title_text_align_phone=\"center\" title_text_align_last_edited=\"off|desktop\" title_font_size_tablet=\"44px\" title_font_size_phone=\"30px\" title_font_size_last_edited=\"on|tablet\" title_text_shadow_style=\"preset1\" border_color_right=\"#FAA82A\" locked=\"off\" global_colors_info=\"{%22gcid-9b607bfd-ddfe-4f74-b296-5e8b18c0f423%22:%91%22title_text_color%22%93}\"][\/et_pb_heading][et_pb_cta _builder_version=\"4.27.4\" _module_preset=\"default\" body_font_size=\"16px\" background_color=\"#093049\" custom_padding=\"16px||1px|||\" global_colors_info=\"{}\"]<\/p>\n The ARO Award of Merit recognizes an individual who has made substantial scientific achievements in and contributions to the fields encompassed by otolaryngology. Candidates should be able to present a talk as part of the Award ceremony at the Midwinter Meeting.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_cta][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=\"1\" admin_label=\"section\" _builder_version=\"4.27.4\" background_color=\"#E6E8E6\" custom_padding=\"28px|||||\" locked=\"off\" global_colors_info=\"{}\"][et_pb_row admin_label=\"row\" _builder_version=\"4.16\" background_size=\"initial\" background_position=\"top_left\" background_repeat=\"repeat\" global_colors_info=\"{}\"][et_pb_column type=\"4_4\" _builder_version=\"4.16\" custom_padding=\"|||\" global_colors_info=\"{}\" custom_padding__hover=\"|||\"][et_pb_text admin_label=\"Text\" _builder_version=\"4.27.4\" text_text_color=\"#0E5688\" background_size=\"initial\" background_position=\"top_left\" background_repeat=\"repeat\" global_colors_info=\"{}\"]<\/p>\n Internationally renowned for his elegant research and eloquent lectures, Peter Narins has been selected for the 2019 ARO Award of Merit for his significant impact on the field of auditory neuroscience.\u00a0 Peter received his B.S. and Master\u2019s in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University.\u00a0 After volunteering for three years with the Peace Corps in Chile, he returned to Cornell to earn his Ph.D. in Neurobiology and Behavior under the supervision of Robert R. Capranica.\u00a0 He then moved to the University of Keele for a\u00a0postdoctoral fellowship\u00a0to learn mammalian\u00a0auditory physiology with Edward\u00a0F. Evans, and later returned to the United States to join the\u00a0faculty\u00a0at UCLA,\u00a0where\u00a0he\u00a0rapidly rose through the ranks to become\u00a0Distinguished Professor of\u00a0Integrative\u00a0Biology\u00a0&\u00a0Physiology\u00a0and\u00a0of Ecology\u00a0&\u00a0Evolutionary\u00a0Biology.\u00a0 Peter\u2019s numerous honors and awards include election to the rank of Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and four scientific societies -- the Acoustical Society of America, the Animal Behavior Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the International Society for Neuroethology.\u00a0 He has been named a Grass Fellow at Woods Hole, and has also been the recipient of a Senior Scientist Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and an Award from the Fulbright Scholar Program.\u00a0 Peter has also served the International Society for Neuroethology as Council Member, Treasurer, and President.\u00a0\u00a0He is an Honorary Member of the Cuban Zoological Society and Professor\u00a0Ad Honorem<\/em>\u00a0at the University of the Republic, Montevideo, Uruguay.<\/span><\/p>\n At the cornerstone of Peter\u2019s major scientific\u00a0contributions is the\u00a0application of\u00a0principles\u00a0from engineering\u00a0to\u00a0the\u00a0study\u00a0of\u00a0hearing.\u00a0\u00a0Using anuran amphibians (frogs and toads) as his primary experimental model, he\u00a0pioneered a\u00a0research\u00a0strategy\u00a0that integrated an analysis of\u00a0the\u00a0mechanics\u00a0and physiology\u00a0of hearing\u00a0in\u00a0the\u00a0well-controlled laboratory\u00a0setting\u00a0with\u00a0elegantly-designed\u00a0field\u00a0experiments\u00a0in\u00a0the\u00a0acoustically-messy\u00a0and\u00a0complex\u00a0real world environments in which\u00a0animals actually\u00a0have\u00a0to\u00a0hear, listen,\u00a0and\u00a0act.\u00a0\u00a0By this approach, he showed definitively what was once considered to be a \u201csimple\u201d ear is actually quite complex and reveals many surprises.\u00a0\u00a0As just one example, Peter\u00a0developed a method based on laser Doppler interferometry to measure the vibrations of the eardrum of the Puerto Rican coqui frog in response to ambient and self-generated sounds. This led to the discovery of the mechanism that prevents the inner ear from being overstimulated when the frog produces long, almost uninterrupted series of advertisement calls at intensities of more than 110 dB SPL.\u00a0 In a series of painstaking measurements, Peter discovered that sounds generated by the vocal cords, after being radiated from the vocal sac, impinge both on the inner and on the outer surfaces of the tympanic membrane.\u00a0 If the sounds arrive nearly in phase, then the tympanic membrane does not move much, even when stimulated with sounds of high intensity.\u00a0 To verify the idea that the frog\u2019s ear acts as a pressure-gradient receiver, Peter then transported his laser vibrometer into the Puerto Rican rain forest, and in a truly arduous and elegant endeavor repeated the same delicate measurements in frogs engaged in natural chorusing behaviors.\u00a0 This series of experiments has stimulated similar research in reptiles and birds, and it is now believed that a pressure-gradient receiver represents the original rather than the derived design of the vertebrate ear.<\/span><\/p>\n Peter\u2019s scientific efforts have produced a series of unique and surprising discoveries.\u00a0 Again using laser vibrometry, he was the first to show that\u00a0the coqui\u00a0frog\u00a0can detect sounds, not only through its tympanic membrane, but also\u00a0through its body\u00a0walls (an extratympanic pathway).\u00a0 He\u00a0was the\u00a0first\u00a0to provide neurophysiological evidence suggesting that\u00a0the\u00a0amphibian papilla in\u00a0the\u00a0frog\u2019s inner\u00a0ear\u00a0may\u00a0support a\u00a0mechanical\u00a0traveling wave on its tectorial membrane,\u00a0an idea\u00a0initially\u00a0rejected because\u00a0this animal lacks\u00a0a\u00a0basilar membrane with the usual tapered dimensions from base-to-apex.\u00a0 He\u00a0was the\u00a0first\u00a0to quantify similarities\u00a0and differences in phase-locking\u00a0properties of\u00a0amphibian\u00a0and mammalian\u00a0auditory\u00a0nerve fibers, an important finding for understanding the evolution and operation of a time-coding mechanism in the inner ear.\u00a0Peter and his team also demonstrated temperature-dependence of auditory nerve response properties and two-tone rate suppression in the frog.\u00a0 This work not only contributed to our understanding of auditory processing in vertebrates, but also stimulated another line of investigation, namely the contribution of stochastic resonance to stimulus detection.\u00a0 He took advantage of the observation that temperature affects noise in the nervous system to systematically measure auditory detection under experimentally controlled noise levels. This work offers the compelling insight that temperature (and noise) can affect information transfer in the anuran peripheral auditory system.\u00a0Going back to the field, Peter showed that male white-lipped frogs use seismic \u201cthumps\u201d as well as advertisement calls to communicate within choruses.\u00a0 Following up this observation with electrophysiological experiments in a long and fruitful collaboration with Ted Lewis, he then demonstrated that the inner ears of these frogs are much more sensitive to seismic\u00a0signals than expected from research with other terrestrial animals.\u00a0 In a parallel study of seismic communication with Ted, Dr. Narins demonstrated that the functionally blind Namib Desert golden mole uses seismic cues alone to locate food sources.<\/span><\/p>\n Peter\u00a0designed and implemented electromechanical robotic models to demonstrate that a\u00a0highly territorial South American dendrobatid frog uses a combination of acoustic cues (advertisement calls) and visual signals (vocal-sac pulsations) to evoke aggressive behavior.\u00a0 In a landmark field study, Peter and his students demonstrated that both the pitch and the timing of the calls of the Puerto Rican Coqui treefrog change in a similar fashion along an altitudinal gradient. By recording DPOAEs from frogs captured at different altitudes on a tropical mountain, they demonstrated that the call frequencies and auditory tuning are closely matched at all altitudes.\u00a0 Moreover, in a set of field experiments spanning a 23-year period, Peter and his team demonstrated that the spectral and temporal parameters of the calls of the Puerto Rican Coqui have shifted in the amount and direction consistent with the observed temperature rise in Puerto Rico over that same period.\u00a0 These results formed the basis of an argument that minute changes in frog calls over time can be used for monitoring global warming.\u00a0\u00a0And\u00a0finally,\u00a0he along with Albert Feng were\u00a0the leaders of\u00a0an international\u00a0team of scientists\u00a0that made\u00a0the extraordinary discovery\u00a0that the concave-eared torrent frog,\u00a0a species living in central China, produces and hears ultrasound to avoid masking from the intense broadband noise generated by surrounding waterfalls.\u00a0 This finding was truly astonishing, as most frogs and toads communicate and hear at frequencies below 5 kHz.\u00a0 Peter and colleagues have now identified other species of frogs in Asia that similarly communicate in the ultrasound range.<\/span><\/p>\n As a faculty member, Peter has been a champion of early career scientists around the world; he has taught and continues to teach courses and mentored graduate students, postdocs, and young faculty in the U.S., Cuba, Europe, Asia, and South America.\u00a0 He is a superb classroom teacher, as is evident from his numerous teaching awards from UCLA.\u00a0 He runs a vibrant and productive laboratory and has developed collaborations with scientists all over the world.\u00a0 He has also served the auditory community through his extensive editorial work.\u00a0\u00a0He\u00a0is\u00a0highly\u00a0respected,\u00a0not only as a scientist and educator, but also\u00a0as a kind,\u00a0forthright, and loyal friend, with\u00a0the\u00a0utmost\u00a0integrity.<\/span><\/p>\n Peter has been married for nearly 50 years to Olivia Gubler, whom he met while serving with the Peace Corps in Chile.\u00a0 Peter and Olivia have two married children, Tom and Astrid, two grandchildren, Nicole and Ryan, and a third on the way.\u00a0 Peter enjoys traveling to places that are off-the-beaten track, Travis-picking on the guitar, amateur radio communication, especially using Morse Code, birding, frogging and spending time with his growing family.<\/span><\/p>\n We congratulate Peter on this well-deserved honor.<\/span><\/p>\n Andrea Megela Simmons<\/span> Cynthia F. Moss<\/span> [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=\"4.27.4\" _module_preset=\"default\" global_colors_info=\"{}\"][et_pb_column type=\"4_4\" _builder_version=\"4.27.4\" _module_preset=\"default\" global_colors_info=\"{}\"][et_pb_button button_url=\"https:\/\/aro.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/ARO-Award-of-Merit-Past-Winners.pdf\" url_new_window=\"on\" button_text=\"Past Award of Merit Recipients\" button_alignment=\"center\" _builder_version=\"4.27.4\" _module_preset=\"default\" custom_button=\"on\" button_text_size=\"16px\" button_text_color=\"#093049\" button_bg_color=\"#FAA82A\" button_border_radius=\"25px\" button_font=\"--et_global_heading_font|700||on|||||\" button_use_icon=\"off\" custom_margin=\"||-2px||false|false\" custom_padding=\"|25px||25px|false|false\" global_colors_info=\"{}\"][\/et_pb_button][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The ARO Award of Merit recognizes an individual who has made substantial scientific achievements in and contributions to the fields encompassed by otolaryngology. Candidates should be able to present a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":14,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"
cooking, camping, and hiking. Lynne has been married to David Olsho for 48 years. David is also a runner. They have two daughters: Lauren Olsho is a health economist with a research focus on nutrition and risky behavior; Alexis Olsho is a researcher in physics education. Lynne and David have three grandchildren, Daisy, Sidney, and Willa, all of whom she describes as \u201csweet\u201d, \u201csmart,\u201d and \u201cgood runners\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n
allowed for estimation of both detection and discrimination thresholds in the clinic as well as in the lab. Unfortunately, the conditioned head-turn technique does not yield reliable results for infants younger than about 6 months of age.<\/span><\/p>\nPeter M. Narins, PhD<\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n
Brown University<\/span><\/p>\n
Johns Hopkins University<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nDoris Wu, Ph.D.<\/strong><\/span><\/span>\r\n\r\nDoris Wu grew up in Hong Kong, where her mother was a grade-school teacher and her father a civil servant. She has loved biology ever since high school and she came to the United States for college, majoring in Biology and Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point.\u00a0 Still passionate about biology but unsure about her next career move after graduation, she worked as a laboratory technician at the Department of Physiology, School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, where she later obtained her master\u2019s degree in 1978, studying endocrinology of the reproductive system. She then moved across town to the University of California - Los Angeles (UCLA) to further her graduate work in studying neuronal and glia interactions. Doris received her PhD from now the Department of Neurobiology in 1983. After a brief postdoctoral fellowship at the Mental Retardation Center at UCLA, she joined Dr. Constance Cepko\u2019s laboratory at the Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School as a postdoctoral fellow. There, she studied cell type determination in the mammalian retina, focusing on the development of a subtype of amacrine cells.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nAs a sensory system developmental neurobiologist, Doris was drawn to the beauty and complexity of the inner ear structure and although she had never received formal training in this field, she accepted her first independent position at the Intramural program of NIDCD in 1993. She set out to decipher the molecular mechanisms underlying the formation of the inner ear. She rose through the ranks at the NIH, and now holds the position of Chief in the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, NIDCD. She views her scientific journey as deeply rewarding and complementary to that of many others in the development field who have identified some of the key genes and molecular pathways underlying the formation of this amazing organ. The knowledge gained from these discoveries continues to provide the basis for hair cell regeneration research and for understanding the etiology of hereditary deafness.<\/span>\r\n\r\nDoris has been a single mom since her son was 10 months old. Managing work and family life balance was a challenge when her son was growing up. Now, when she is not visiting her 102-year-old mother in Hong Kong, she enjoys cooking and taking walks while talking to life-long friends in her spare time.<\/span>","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5795","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aro.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aro.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aro.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aro.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aro.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aro.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5795\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aro.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aro.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}