Acoustical Society of America honors the memory of late SU associate professor Evan M. Relkin

Acoustical Society of America honors the memory of late SU associate professor Evan M. RelkinApril 25, 2003Kelly Homan Rodoskikahoman@syr.edu

As a member of Syracuse University’s Institute for Sensory Research (ISR), Evan M. Relkin studied the electrophysiology of the auditory nerve and mentored students. His March 23, 2002, death following an accident at a local ice skating rink was a tragic loss for not only his family and friends, but his students and colleagues as well.

Relkin, who was an associate professor of bioengineering and neuroscience in the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS), will be remembered and honored by his peers around the nation in an April 28 special session at the Acoustical Society of America’s 145th meeting in Nashville, Tenn.

The special session will be chaired by Robert L. Smith, professor of bioengineering and neuroscience and director of the ISR. Smith specifically chose papers for the session are reflective of Relkin’s work and interests.

“I was extremely pleased to be asked to organize this session by the technical committee for physiological and psychological acoustics of the Acoustical Society of America,” says Smith. “During Evan’s years at Syracuse I always sought out and benefited from his valuable collaboration, insights, and advice, and continue to miss his presence.”

The session’s keynote speaker, William Shofner, is the current editor of the Physiological and Psychological Acoustics section of the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, where Relkin often published. Two of the session speakers, Scott Jackson and Sean Davidson, graduate students in bioengineering, were former students of Relkin. Jackson will speak on “Can we learn anything new from the animal’s perspective? Bayesian stimulus estimation based on neural spike trains.” Davidson will be joined by Laurel Carney, professor of bioengineering and neuroscience and a member of the ISR, in presenting “Monaural and diotic detection of tones in wideband and narrow-band reproductible noise makers.”

Relkin earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, and his master’s degree and doctorate in bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania and subsequently held postdoctoral positions in the Auditory Research Laboratory at Northwestern University. Relkin joined the SU faculty in 1984 as assistant professor of bioengineering and neuroscience, director of the bioengineering program, and member of the Institute for Sensory Research (ISR).

Relkin held professional memberships in the Acoustical Society of America, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Association for Research in Otolaryngology and Sigma Xi Society for Neuroscience. His research specializations were in auditory physiology; information coding in the auditory periphery; neural correlates of auditory perception; and efferent suppression of oto-acoustic emissions.

“Through his caring teaching, innovative research and thoughtful service, Evan enriched the lives of generations of ECS students and scores of colleagues,” says ECS Dean Edward A. Bogucz. “Evan’s many contributions to our community are sorely missed.”