Distinguished Professor Emeritus Jozef J. Zwislocki to deliver honorary degree seminar at SU

Thursday, May 6, 2004, By News Staff

Distinguished Professor Emeritus Jozef J. Zwislockito deliver honorary degree seminar at SUMay 06, 2004Edward Byrnesedbyrnes@syr.edu

Distinguished Professor Emeritus of neuroscience and member of the National Academy of Sciences Jozef J. Zwislocki will deliver an honorary degree seminar titled “Your Sensations and Feelings Can Now Be Measured” in Room 369 of Link Hall,May 7 at 11 a.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Zwislocki, one of SU’s most respected and distinguished faculty members, will receive an honorary Doctor of Science degree from SU during the University’s 150th Commencement ceremonies, to be held May 9. He has more than 200 publications and holds 17 patents. In 1957, Zwislocki left the Department of Experimental Psychology at Harvard to come to SU, where he founded the Bioacoustics Laboratory in the Department of Special Education. He next advanced his multidisciplinary approach by moving to the College of Engineering, founding the Laboratory of Sensory Communication in 1963, adding laboratories in touch and vision as well as a Ph.D. program in neuroscience.

In 1970, Zwislocki invented the “Zwislocki Coupler,” an artificial ear that determines the amount of current needed in an earphone to produce a particular sound intensity at the eardrum. The Zwislocki Coupler has been accepted as a national standard for hearing-aid earphones. Under his direction, the laboratory grew to the present Institute for Sensory Research in 1973; it has become a world-class center for the study of sensory systems. Using the Institute as a hub, he initiated one of the earliest undergraduate departments of bioengineering. In 1985, he became the first recipient of the Von Bekesy Medal in Physiological Acoustics from the Acoustical Society of America “for landmark contributions to our knowledge of the hydromechanical, neurophysiological, and perceptual mechanisms of the auditory system,” one of only three ever awarded.

A native of Poland, Zwislocki was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1990 and to the Polish Academy of Sciences in 1997. In 1992, he received the Hugh KnowlesPrize for distinguished achievement in the diagnosis and prevention of hearing disorders. He retired from teaching in 1992, but to this day he continues to work in his laboratory, influencing another generation of scientists, engineers and clinicians with his principles and insights.

SU recently licensed one of his patents, an innovative “ear muffler” personal hearing protection device, to two Rochester businessmen who will be coordinating the manufacture, marketing and national distribution of the product.

His lecture is sponsored by SU’s Department of Bioengineering and Neuroscience.

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