Keynote Speakers

Gabriel Corfas, University of Michigan

Gabriel Corfas, PhD, is Professor and Associate Chair for Research in the Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Michigan and Director of the Kresge Hearing Research Institute. His research is focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms of neuron-glia interactions and the roles of glia in health and disease with the hope to use this knowledge towards developing treatments for nervous system disorders. His laboratory has contributed to the understanding of the roles of glia to hearing and deafness. Dr. Corfas earned his PhD in neurobiology from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and completed postdoctoral training at Washington University and Harvard Medical School. ​Prior to joining the University of Michigan faculty in 2014, he was Professor of Neurology and Otolaryngology at Harvard Medical School and Director of Basic Research in Otolaryngology at Boston Children’s Hospital.

Judy R. Dubno, Medical University of South Carolina

Judy R. Dubno, PhD, is a Professor and the Director of the Hearing Research Program in the Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery at the Medical University of South Carolina. She is the recipient of the James Jerger Career Award for Research in Audiology, Honors of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, and the 2018 South Carolina Governor’s Award for Excellence in Science. Her research is focused on auditory perception and speech recognition in adverse listening conditions and how perception changes with age, hearing loss, hearing aids, and training. Dr. Dubno earned her PhD in Speech and Hearing Science from the City University of New York Graduate Center and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine.

Paul Fuchs, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Paul Fuchs, PhD, is the John E. Bordley Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and serves as Director of the Center for Hearing and Balance at Hopkins. His research centers on the cellular electrophysiology of the inner ear with particular attention paid to excitability and synaptic transmission between sensory hair cells, afferent and efferent neurons. Dr. Fuchs earned his PhD in Neuro- and Bio-behavioral Sciences from Stanford University and completed postdoctoral training at Stanford and Cambridge University.

Andy Groves, Baylor College of Medicine

Andy Groves, PhD, is a Professor in the Departments of Neuroscience and Molecular and Human Genetics and the Vivian L. Smith Endowed Chair in the Department of Neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine. He also serves as the Director of the Graduate Program in Development, Disease Models, and Therapeutics at Baylor. His research uses the inner ear as a model system to address fundamental questions in developmental biology and regeneration. Dr. Groves earned his PhD from the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at University College London and completed postdoctoral training at the California Institute of Technology.

Nina Kraus, Northwestern University

Nina Kraus, PhD, is a Professor in the School of Communication and in the Departments of Neurobiology and Otolaryngology at Northwestern University. Her research is focused on numerous aspects of the auditory system, including its underlying brain mechanisms, the way musical input influences our ability to read and learn language, and how conditions such as concussion, autism, aging, and HIV affect sound processing. Nina has an abiding interest in the interface between music and the brain and how auditory function can reflect brain health following a concussion. Dr. Kraus earned her PhD in Neuroscience from Northwestern University and completed her undergraduate work at Swarthmore College.

Dan Polley, Harvard Medical School

Daniel Polley, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology at Harvard Medical School, the Director of the Lauer Tinnitus Research Center, and the Associate Director of Eaton-Peabody Laboratories at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. Research in the Polley lab is focused on the connection between neural circuit dynamics in the auditory cortex and the perception of sound. Projects in the lab address a broad portfolio of complementary basic science and applied research topics. Basic research projects leverage recent advances in two-photon calcium imaging, multi-channel electrophysiology, deep brain imaging and optogenetics to measure and manipulate neural circuits in awake, behaving mice. Dr. Polley earned his PhD in Neuroscience from the University of California, Irvine and completed postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco.

Jennifer Stone, University of Washington

Jennifer Stone, PhD, is a Research Professor and Director of Research in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Washington. Her research is focused on ways to improve biological therapies for inner ear hair cell damage, to treat individuals with hearing and balance dysfunction. Her group examines the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying hair cell development and regeneration in auditory and vestibular systems, in both birds and mammals. Dr. Stone received her PhD in Anatomy and Neurobiology from Boston University School of Medicine and completed postdoctoral training at the University of Washington.

Thanos Tzounopoulos, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Thanos Tzounopoulos, PhD, is a Professor and Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Otolaryngology and the UPMC Endowed Professor of Auditory Physiology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He also serves as the Director of the Pittsburgh Hearing Research Center. His research is focused on cellular, molecular, and systems mechanisms underlying normal and pathological auditory processing. He also studies tinnitus and its underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms. More recently, his research has expanded to drug discovery and development for tinnitus. Dr. Tzounopoulos earned his PhD in Molecular and Medical Genetics at Oregon Health and Science University as a Fulbright Scholar and completed postdoctoral training at the University of California at San Francisco and the Oregon Hearing Research Center.