We request partial support to cover the expenses of the 14th Mechanics of Hearing (MoH) Workshop, to be held in the summer of 2020 at Konventum conference center at Helsingor, Denmark. Since their inception in 1983, the MoH Workshops have provided the primary forum for presenting, debating, and sparking advances in the fields of auditory biomechanics and biophysics. Convened at three-year intervals, the Workshops bring together for five days of intense discussion researchers working on the mechanics of hearing at the molecular, cellular, and systems levels using biological, mathematical, and engineering techniques. Attendees are from a wide range of U.S. and international institutions, and the Workshop has historically been held at both domestic and international locations. The most recent Workshop was held in Brock University, St Catharines in Ontario, Canada; it attracted 142 physical participants out of 171 registered from many international destinations across the globe. Prior to that, Workshops were held in Greece, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, and the United States. The 2020 Workshop is being jointly organized by the VA Loma Linda Healthcare System and Technical University of Denmark (DTU). DTU was chosen not only for keeping the Workshop tradition of alternating between Europe and North America, but also for its easy travel location for the majority of the participants, for the outstanding facilities and support services provided by the Konventum conference center, for the fact that Denmark plays a major role internationally in the fields of hearing assistive devices and hearing-related diagnosis. In this proposal, we request funds from the NIH to cover student and post-doctoral scholarships and travel, and a portion of the audio-visual and publication costs (all of the conference proceedings will be peer-reviewed and published with open access).
for Human Health Deafness is the most common and most socially isolating sensory impairment, with the World Health Organization estimating that over 466 million people worldwide have moderate to profound hearing loss and more than 1 billion young people (12-35 years) are under the risk of hearing loss due to recreational exposure to loud sounds. Although the physiological causes of most forms of deafness are incompletely understood, it is clear that changes to the delicate structures of the peripheral auditory system, such as the cochlear hair cells normally responsible for the high sensitivity and exquisite frequency selectivity of hearing, are mostly to blame. A deeper scientific understanding of peripheral auditory function at both the structural and molecular level therefore remains critical to reducing the devastating impact of hearing loss on both individuals and society.
