Professor Stefan Bleeck

My first academic love has been Physics, and I studied it for a Diploma at the University of Darmstadt in 1995. During this time, I developed a fascination with the most complex structure of all - the human brain - and continued a pathway into the mysteries of Biology. Combining both interests, I finally was awarded a PhD in computational neuroscience in 2000 from the Institute of Zoology at the University of Darmstadt, Germany for work on temporal processing in neurons. After this, I concentrated on a more specific aspect of the brain, the auditory system, and worked as a research assistant in the "Centre of the Neural Basis of Hearing" in Cambridge, UK. Starting with psychophysical investigations about pitch perception, and finally combining the work with electrophysiological investigations in the auditory brainstem.  In 2005 I was offered a lectureship at the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research at the University of Southampton in the Hearing and Balance Centre. Following the main strength of this group, I concentrated work on speech intelligibility and hearing impairment. My goal is to use knowledge from physiology and psychology to help people with a hearing impairment to understand speech better. 

I was promoted to senior lecturer in 2019 and a professorship in 2016. I have been head of the Hearing and Balance centre and I am currently the director of the ISVR.

Prizes