Research advisory panel
Our Research Sub-Committee meets quarterly (January, April, July and October) to consider applications for funding.
The full Research Advisory Panel meets annually to discuss our research strategy and funding priorities. It consists of the following people.
- Professor Quentin Summerfield MA PhD FASA (Chief Research Adviser)
- Dr Maria Bitner-Glindzicz FRCP PhD
- Dr Robert P Carlyon PhD
- Professor Matthew Holley BSc DPhil
- Professor Mark Lutman PhD
- Professor Alan Palmer BSc PhD
- Professor Guy Richardson
- Professor Tony Wright LLM DM FRC TechRMS
Role of Research Advisers
- Advising on Deafness Research UK research priorities
- Reviewing and monitoring applications within areas of individual expertise
- Stimulating and encouraging work in areas of individual expertise
- Assisting and supporting the liaison with potential major donors
- Advising on Deafness Research UK literature
- Acting as a spokesperson for Deafness Research UK
- Leading Deafness Research UK-supported workshops and events within areas of individual expertise
- Occasionally, providing advice on more complex queries received by the Deafness Research UK Information Service
In addition to the above, our Chief Research Adviser is responsible for presenting details of all of the grant applications, reviewers’ comments and advisers’ recommendations to the Research Sub-Committee which meets quarterly to make recommendations to the Board of Trustees.
Panel members are asked to serve a maximum of five years.
Biographies
Professor Quentin Summerfield MA PhD FASA
Chief Research Adviser
Current position and area of research
Quentin Summerfield is currently Anniversary Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of York.
Other positions held
He is an elected fellow of the Acoustical Society of America and a scientific advisor to Deafness Research UK, the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, the Department of Work and Pensions and the RNID. Editorial Board member of Cochlear Implants International and the British Journal of Audiology.
Key professional achievements
For his work on the Institute’s Report on the Evaluation of the National Cochlear Implant Programme, he was awarded the George Davey Howells Memorial Prize from the University of London (joint recipient), the Thomas Simm Littler Prize from the British Society of Audiology and the Edith Whetnall Memorial Medial from the Royal Society of Medicine.
Dr Maria Bitner-Glindzicz FRCP PhD
Current position and area of research
Maria Bitner-Glindzicz is a Reader and Honorary Consultant in Clinical Genetics at the Institute of Child Health, UCL and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. She is also a member of the UCL Ear Institute.
Area of speciality and interest
Dr Bitner-Glindzicz specialises in genetic conditions which cause deafness either alone or as part of multiple disabilities. Her group and her collaborators have identified a number of genes causing childhood deafness in the past and molecular diagnosis for these is now available through the Regional Molecular Genetics diagnostic lab. The group is currently working on the clinical, genetic and functional aspects of Usher syndrome, which causes both deafness and blindness in children and young adults.
Dr Robert P Carlyon PhD
Current position and area of research
Bob Carlyon is a Programme Leader at the MRC Cognition & Brain Sciences Unit at the University of Cambridge. He is also a Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, and a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America.
Area of speciality and interest
Dr Carlyon's research interests include the perceptual segregation of multiple sounds presented at the same time and the perceptual organisation of sounds presented sequentially. Both of these are important for the ability to listen to and understand speech in social situations. One area of research focuses on the way cochlear implant wearers might be able to perceptually segregate patterns of electrical stimulation that are applied to different electrodes. Dr Carlyon has also investigated the effects of waveform shape on implant users' sensitivity to electrical stimulation, and the ability of people fitted with an implant in each ear to process small timing differences between the two ears.
Professor Matthew Holley BSc DPhil
Current position and area of research
Matthew Holley is Professor of Sensory Physiology at the University of Sheffield.
Other positions held
He serves on the Biomedical Resources committee at The Wellcome Trust, is a member of the MRC, RNID and Deafness Research UK Advisory Boards and an Honorary member of the British Cochlear Implant Group. He is a consultant to several companies involved in auditory research and is on the editorial boards of several scientific journals.
Key professional achievements
He studied the micro-mechanical properties of sensory cells from the inner ear and was one of the first scientists to establish inner ear cell lines in culture. These cells open the way to studies on genes and molecules that are essential for inner ear development. He has also instigated numerous activities in the public understanding of science, including the exhibition entitled ‘Look Hear’, which began at The Wellcome Trust ‘Two Ten’ Gallery before touring the UK.
Professor Mark Lutman PhD
Mark Lutman joined the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research in 1995 as Professor of Audiology from the Medical Research Council’s Institute of Hearing Research in Nottingham. He graduated in Engineering Science at ISVR in 1971 and went on to complete an MSc in Sound and Vibration followed by a PhD in Audiology, both at ISVR. He was appointed by the Medical Research Council as Research Fellow in 1975 at ISVR. In 1979 he took up the post of MRC Scientist-in-charge of the Glasgow Clinical Outstation of the Institute of Hearing Research, moving in 1980 to Nottingham where he became Scientist-in-charge of the Nottingham Clinical Outstation until 1995. During the period from 1991-1995 he was Editor of the British Journal of Audiology. Awards include the British Society of Audiology’s Thomas Simm Littler Prize in 1989, University of London George Davey Howells Memorial Prize in 1992 and the American Auditory Society Editor’s Award for Outstanding research in Audiology and the Hearing Sciences in 1998.
Areas of Speciality and Interest
Measurement of cochlear function from otoacoustic emissions, neonatal hearing screening, cochlear implantation, psychoacoustics, epidemiology of hearing impairment, evaluation of benefit from hearing instruments and noise-induced hearing loss.
Professor Alan Palmer BSc PhD
Current position and area of research
Assistant Director and Programme Leader at the MRC Institute of Hearing Research
Other positions held
Special Professor of Neuroscience, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Nottingham. Member of the MRC College of Experts and the RNID Advisory Board.
Key professional achievements
Alan Palmer received his first degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Birmingham UK in 1972 and his PhD in Communication and Neuroscience from the University of Keele UK in 1977. After three years as a postdoctoral researcher at Keele he established his own laboratory at the National Institute for Medical Research in London. This was followed by a Royal Society University Research Fellowship at the University of Sussex before taking up his current position in 1986. He heads a research team that uses neurophysiological techniques to study the way the brain processes sound. He also has responsibility for major technical developments such as a noise reducing sound system for fMRI, loudspeaker arrays for psychophysics and equipment for animal behavioural laboratories.
Professor Guy Richardson
Current position and area of research
Guy Richardson is a Professorial Fellow at the Hearing Research Centre, School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex. His research is focussed on the development of the cochlea.
Key professional achievements
Professor Richardson and his colleagues are working on the cellular and molecular basis of hearing, deafness and hair-cell regeneration. He is interested in understanding how the tectorial membrane, a specialised extracellular matrix unique to the inner ear, is produced and how it contributes to the tuning properties of the cochlea. He is also working on providing a molecular characterisation of proteins that are associated with the surface of the hair bundle and dissecting the signalling pathways that lead to the regeneration of sensory hair cells in the avian inner ear. He has published his research findings widely in many highly-regarded scientific journals and is a recognised expert in many aspects of hearing research.
Professor Tony Wright LLM DM FRC TechRMS
Current position and area of research
Director of the University College London Ear Institute and Honorary Consultant ENT Surgeon at the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital. His current major research interest is in imaging relating to the planning of surgical procedures, training and computer assisted surgery.
Other positions held
He is immediate Past President of the Otolaryngological Research Society, member of the Specialist Advisory Committee in Otolaryngology for JCHST, and Editorial Board member of the Journal of Clinical Otolaryngology, as well as a reviewer for various professional journals. He is also scientific advisor for Deafness Research UK and the RNID.
Key professional achievements
He headed the EEC Hearing Impairment Programme to produce the report on “Hair Cell Distributions in the Normal Human Cochlea".
