STUDENTS AT THE FOREFRONT
The Helen Carr Peake Research Prize
2003 May Issue 3

Courtney C. Lane is the winner of RLE's Helen Carr Peake Research Prize for 2003, with Joshua G. Bernstein receiving Honorable Mention.

Lane is a graduate student in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST). She pursues her research at the Eaton-Peabody Laboratory (EPL) of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary under the supervision of RLE Principal Research Scientist Bertrand Delgutte in the RLE Auditory Physiology Group. Through a combination of neurophysiological, psychophysical, and computational approaches, Lane's research has shed considerable light on spatial release from masking, which allows improved detectability of a target sound in noise with increased spatial separation between the two sources.

Bernstein is also a graduate student in HST. His research, which is being conducted at RLE under the supervision of RLE Principal Research Scientist Andrew J. Oxenham in the Sensory Communication Group, addresses the role of harmonic content in pitch perception.

The Helen Carr Peake Research Prize was established through a donation of Sheldon Pang, an RLE and EPL alumnus. It consists of an annual award of $2,000 to an MIT student for bioengineering research performed in either RLE or EPL. This is the first year of the prize. The prize presentation to Lane and the honorable mention presentation to Bernstein will occur later this month at a gala award luncheon hosted by RLE.