Elaine Saunders (scientist)

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Elaine Saunders
Born1954 (1954)
Alma mater University of Manchester
Scientific career
Institutions Swinburne University

Elaine Saunders (born 1954) [1] is an associate professor at the Swinburne University of Technology and executive director of Blamey Saunders, as well as an inventor, entrepreneur. [2] [3] She was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science Technology and Engineering in 2019. [4] She is one of only nine women out of 160 to win the Clunies Ross award for entrepreneurship, [5] and has won many other awards, as well as given numerous keynote addresses on the value of entrepreneurship and innovation in STEMM. [6] [7]

Contents

Early life and career

Saunders' career is based on helping relieve the burden of people who have hearing loss. [8] She co-founded the hearing aid company, Blamey Saunders Hears, with Professor Peter Blamey. [9] She currently works at Swinburne University and the Bionics Institute. She has described how she was inspired to work in hearing as her father was deaf. [10] [11]

" I was inspired to do that as a missionary entrepreneur kind of thing because my dad was deaf and I saw how he just wanted good hearing aids. The technology just wasn’t good enough. That got me working with deaf kids as a volunteer. I thought the problem there was even worse. I didn’t really know how you could address the problem, but I was really interested to work in the field. Then, when I think about it all the jobs that I’ve had since my first career jobs, I was always the first appointee, so I was always quite entrepreneurial in them." [10]

Saunders is the head of an audiology clinic team who work in audiology and research on hearing aids. The team has launched an online hearing test that conducts analysis of hearing for speech sounds. [10]

Saunders also was a co-founder and CEO of the company "Dynamic Hearing", (which later became Cirrus Logic), which focused on supplying digital signal processing for ultra-low power chips as part of products which include Bluetooth headsets and hearing aids. [12]

Education

Saunders obtained a BSc (Hon) in chemical physics from the University of Manchester, England. [13] She then obtained a master's degree in clinical audiology, also at the University of Manchester, and then a PhD in biomedical engineering from the University of Southampton. She worked within England, with positions as a clinical audiologist and lecturer in audiology. She then moved back to Australia in 1984 and subsequently worked as a clinical and research audiologist. [13]

STEMM careers and advocacy

Saunders is an advocate of using education and training in STEMM in biotechnical careers, and has appeared and spoken at many STEMM careers events, encouraging others to 'use STEMM to do good in the world'. [14] She has also given presentations about the benefit of STEMM careers to students and parents of students. [15] She is also an advocate of Women in STEMM and encouraging women to study, and work in STEMM. [16] Saunders has been involved with supporting and mentoring many women in STEMM careers, from early to mid-career researchers. [17]

Awards and prizes

Saunders was one of the only nine women of the 160 winners of the Clunies Ross award for inventors and entrepreneurs. [5] She has won numerous other prizes including:

Works

Saunders was co-author with John Bamford of Hearing Impairment, Auditory Perception, and Language Sisability, first published in 1985 by E. Arnold, [24] with a second edition in 1991 by Whurr Publishers. [25]

Saunders was a co-producer of a play, The Sound of Waves performed in 2014 in Melbourne. [26] The play was centred around the life experience and story of a girl who is profoundly deaf (played by Jodie Harris). The protagonist of the play was a trial patient who received a cochlear implant in 1999.

Her autobiography, Sounds of Silence, was published by New Holland in 2015. [27] In 2019 the book she edited, Tele-audiology and the Optimization of Hearing Health Care Delivery, was published by Hershey. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hearing loss</span> Partial or total inability to hear

Hearing loss is a partial or total inability to hear. Hearing loss may be present at birth or acquired at any time afterwards. Hearing loss may occur in one or both ears. In children, hearing problems can affect the ability to acquire spoken language, and in adults it can create difficulties with social interaction and at work. Hearing loss can be temporary or permanent. Hearing loss related to age usually affects both ears and is due to cochlear hair cell loss. In some people, particularly older people, hearing loss can result in loneliness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hearing test</span> Evaluation of the sensitivity of a persons sense of hearing


A hearing test provides an evaluation of the sensitivity of a person's sense of hearing and is most often performed by an audiologist using an audiometer. An audiometer is used to determine a person's hearing sensitivity at different frequencies. There are other hearing tests as well, e.g., Weber test and Rinne test.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Audiology</span> Branch of science that studies hearing, balance, and related disorders

Audiology is a branch of science that studies hearing, balance, and related disorders. Audiologists treat those with hearing loss and proactively prevent related damage. By employing various testing strategies, audiologists aim to determine whether someone has normal sensitivity to sounds. If hearing loss is identified, audiologists determine which portions of hearing are affected, to what degree, and where the lesion causing the hearing loss is found. If an audiologist determines that a hearing loss or vestibular abnormality is present, they will provide recommendations for interventions or rehabilitation.

The Doctor of Audiology is a professional degree for an audiologist. The AuD program is designed to produce audiologists who are skilled in providing diagnostic, rehabilitative, and other services associated with hearing, balance, tinnitus management, and related audiological fields. These individuals help patients with hearing problems primarily by diagnosing hearing loss and fitting hearing assistive devices.

Graeme Milbourne Clark is an Australian Professor of Otolaryngology at the University of Melbourne. Worked in ENT surgery, electronics and speech science contributed towards the development of the multiple-channel cochlear implant. His invention was later marketed by Cochlear Limited.

Sound Seekers was a British charity which works to improve the lives of deaf children and children with ear diseases in the developing countries of the Commonwealth of Nations. It provided specialist equipment, training and support to some of the poorest countries of the world, where people with the 'hidden disability' of deafness may otherwise not receive the help they need. In 2020, Sound Seekers merged with DeafKidz International, with the combined charity using the DeafKidz International name.

Auditory processing disorder (APD), rarely known as King-Kopetzky syndrome or auditory disability with normal hearing (ADN), is a neurodevelopmental disorder affecting the way the brain processes sounds. Individuals with APD usually have normal structure and function of the ear, but cannot process the information they hear in the same way as others do, which leads to difficulties in recognizing and interpreting sounds, especially the sounds composing speech. It is thought that these difficulties arise from dysfunction in the central nervous system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central Institute for the Deaf</span> School in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.

Central Institute for the Deaf (CID) is a school for the deaf that teaches students using listening and spoken language, also known as the auditory-oral approach. The school is located in St. Louis, Missouri. CID is affiliated with Washington University in St. Louis.

Aural rehabilitation is the process of identifying and diagnosing a hearing loss, providing different types of therapies to clients who are hard of hearing, and implementing different amplification devices to aid the client's hearing abilities. Aural rehab includes specific procedures in which each therapy and amplification device has as its goal the habilitation or rehabilitation of persons to overcome the handicap (disability) caused by a hearing impairment or deafness.

The UCL Ear Institute is an academic department of the Faculty of Brain Sciences of University College London (UCL) located in Gray's Inn Road in the Bloomsbury district of Central London, England, previously next to the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital, the UK's largest ear, nose and throat hospital until it closed in 2019.

Marion Downs was an American audiologist and professor emerita at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver. She pioneered universal newborn hearing screening in the early 1960s and spent over 30 years advocating for its adoption in hospitals, as well as for the provision of hearing aids to infants displaying hearing loss. Her efforts were aimed at raising awareness within the medical community about the developmental challenges associated with childhood deafness. Thanks to her initiatives, 95 percent of newborns born in America today undergo screening for hearing loss. As a result of her efforts, 95 percent of all newborns in America today are screened for hearing loss. She devoted her professional life to the promotion of early identification of hearing loss in newborns, infants, and young children and to helping deaf and hard of hearing individuals lead fulfilling lives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hearing</span> Sensory perception of sound by living organisms

Hearing, or auditory perception, is the ability to perceive sounds through an organ, such as an ear, by detecting vibrations as periodic changes in the pressure of a surrounding medium. The academic field concerned with hearing is auditory science.

Ira Hirsh was an American psychologist who made early contributions to the field of audiology. He was the Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor of Psychology and Audiology at Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) and served as president of the Acoustical Society of America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dimity Dornan</span> Australian speech pathologist, author and businesswoman

Dimity Dornan AO is a speech pathologist, author, social entrepreneur, bionics advocate, researcher, and businesswoman in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. She is the founder of the Hear and Say Centre for Deaf Children on 6 July 1992 and helped initiate newborn hearing screening in Queensland hospitals, the first such program in Australia. She has received Australian of the Year for Queensland in 2003, and the Suncorp Queenslander of the Year in 2010. Griffith University offers a Dimity Dornan Hear and Say Master of Speech Pathology Scholarship for second year students who have an interest in paediatric speech pathology and working in a regional area.

Sharon G. Kujawa is a clinical audiologist, Director of Audiology Research at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Associate Professor of Otology and Laryngology at Harvard Medical School, and Adjunct Faculty of Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology.and specialist in otolaryngology, Her specialty is the effects of noise exposure and aging on auditory function.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Debara L. Tucci</span> American otolaryngologist

Debara Lyn Tucci is an American otolaryngologist, studying ear, nose, and throat conditions. She co-founded the Duke Hearing Center and currently serves as a professor of Surgery and Director of the Cochlear Implant Program at Duke University. In September 2019 she became Director of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, one of the National Institutes of Health's 27 Institutes and Centers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leonie Walsh</span> Australian scientist and STEMM ambassador

Leonie Walsh is a fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences, and was the first Lead Scientist in Victoria, from 2013 to 2016, as well as the inaugural Women in STEMM Ambassador and the first women president of Australasian Industrial Research Group She was the representative for Victoria on the Forum of Australian Chief Scientists. Walsh received an honorary Doctorate (HonDUniv) due to her contributions in leadership to scientific enterprises, innovation and community leadership, from Swinburne University of Technology. Walsh was a judge in the Westpac 100 Women of Influence awards in 2016.

Sandra Gordon-Salant is an American audiologist. She is a professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she is also director of the doctoral program in clinical audiology. Gordon-Salant investigates the effects of aging and hearing loss on auditory processes, as well as signal enhancement devices for hearing-impaired listeners. She is the senior editor of the 2010 book, The Aging Auditory System. Gordon-Salant has served as editor of the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Dowell</span> Australian audiologist and researcher

Richard Charles Dowell is an Australian audiologist, academic and researcher. He holds the Graeme Clark Chair in Audiology and Speech Science at University of Melbourne. He is a former director of Audiological Services at Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital.

Colette McKay is an Australian audiologist, academic and researcher. She leads the translational hearing program at the Bionics Institute of Australia.

References

  1. 1 2 Saunders, Elaine, 1954-, (editor.); IGI Global, (publisher.) (2019), Tele-audiology and the optimization of hearing health care delivery, IGI Global, ISBN   978-1-5225-8192-5 {{citation}}: |author1= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  2. ↑ "The pain and joy of being a social entrepreneur". SmartCompany. 15 March 2015. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
  3. ↑ "Welcome to Engineers Australia Portal". portal.engineersaustralia.org.au. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
  4. ↑ "Associate Professor Elaine Saunders – Engineer, audiologist & inventor". ATSE. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  5. 1 2 "Hearing aid innovator wins the 2016 Clunies Ross Entrepreneur Award". Hearnet Online. 17 June 2016. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  6. ↑ "EIS 2019". eis19.org. Retrieved 8 November 2019.
  7. ↑ "2018 B3000+ Awards Launch". Melbourne's B3000 Awards. Retrieved 8 November 2019.
  8. ↑ "2011 Vic Award » Pearcey". pearcey.org.au. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  9. 1 2 "Dr Elaine Saunders leads the charge for digital health and innovation at Swinburne". www.swinburne.edu.au. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  10. 1 2 3 "Insights on innovation from industry disruptor Dr Elaine Saunders". Marketing Magazine. 12 August 2015. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  11. ↑ "From the bionic ear to the 'audiologist in your pocket". www.scienceinpublic.com.au. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  12. ↑ "EIS 2019". eis19.org. Retrieved 8 November 2019.
  13. 1 2 "Elaine Saunders, PhD". Audiology. 23 May 2014. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  14. ↑ "Dr Elaine Saunders". The Click List. 6 February 2019. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
  15. ↑ "Empowering Connections in STEMM". The Royal Society of Victoria. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
  16. ↑ "Blamey Saunders hears". www.scienceinpublic.com.au. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
  17. ↑ "EIS 2019". eis19.org. Retrieved 8 November 2019.
  18. 1 2 "Swinburne's Dr Elaine Saunders named a fellow of Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering". www.swinburne.edu.au. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  19. ↑ "Elaine Saunders". The Conversation. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  20. ↑ "PR2011: Dr Elaine Saunders wins 2011 Victorian Pearcey Entrepreneur Award » Pearcey". pearcey.org.au. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  21. ↑ "Backgrounder". www.scienceinpublic.com.au. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  22. ↑ "Tens of thousands of Australian lives changed, over three million to go". www.scienceinpublic.com.au. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  23. ↑ "How Blamey Saunders disrupted an entire industry". Small Business Big Marketing. 30 June 2014. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  24. ↑ Bamford, John; Saunders, Elaine (1985), Hearing impairment, auditory perception, and language disability, E. Arnold, ISBN   978-0-7131-6419-0
  25. ↑ Bamford, John; Saunders, Elaine (1991), Hearing impairment, auditory perception, and language disability (2nd ed.), Whurr, ISBN   978-1-870332-01-9
  26. ↑ "The Sound of Change with Dr. Elaine Saunders". Enterprise Podcast Network - EPN. 14 May 2015. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  27. ↑ Saunders, Elaine (2015), Sound of silence, New Holland, ISBN   978-1-74257-636-7
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