A Little Bit of History: A Series of Symposia on "Mechanics of Hearing", by Egbert de Boer

The proceedings of the first seven Workshops
 (courtesy of A.W. Gummer).

PROSPERO: - Dost thou hear?
MIRANDA: - Your tale, Sir, would cure deafness.

The motto was meant to remind readers of the book that a good deal of our efforts in understanding hearing are directed toward helping people with hearing loss.

    The first symposium was highly successful. It has been followed by a series of symposia with approximately the same fundamental aims. The second symposium (1986) was organized by Jont Allen, Joe Hall, Allyn Hubbard, Steve Neely and Arnold Tubis, it was entitled "Peripheral Auditory Mechanisms" and took place in Boston, MA. The next few symposia alternately took place in the USA and in Europe. The third symposium (1989) was organized by Pat Wilson and Dave Kemp, and was entitled "Cochlear Mechanisms, Structure, Function and Models"; it took place in Keele, UK. Note here the concentration of subjects to just the cochlea. The fourth symposium (1990), entitled "The Mechanics and Biophysics of Hearing" was organized by Peter Dallos, Dan Geisler, John Matthews, Mario Ruggero and Charles Steele. The importance of biophysical aspects in hearing theory is evident from the title; this role is still increasing. That meeting took place in Madison, WI, and the participants remember the strolls along the lake where many important interactions took place. The fifth symposium took place in The Netherlands, in 1993. Its site was on a lake again, in Paterswolde, Groningen. Officially this was the year of retirement for the author of this 'history'.

    The sixth symposium took place in Berkeley, CA and was organized by Ted Lewis, Glennis Long, Richard Lyon, Peter Narins, Charles Steele and Eva Hecht-Poinar. In this symposium, entitled "Diversity in Auditory Mechanics", another aspect was brought to the fore, namely, the enormous diversity of hearing mechanisms throughout the animal kingdom. A real source of inspiration! The seventh symposium did not take place in Europe but in Japan, a country demonstrating an ever-increasing occupation with hearing science. The organizers were Hiroshi Wada and his collaborators T. Takasaka, K. Ikeda, Y. Susuki and T. Koike. The year was 2000 and the location Sendai, Japan. The symposium was entitled "Recent Developments in Auditory Mechanics". The eighth symposium took place in Europe again, in 2002 on the beautiful lakeside in Titisee in the Schwarzwald, Germany. Again a magnificent environment and a quiet setting. The title was: "Biophysics of the Cochlea from Molecules to Models" showing again the concentration on the mammalian cochlea and the extension toward molecular biology and biochemistry. The organizers were Tony Gummer and his local 'crew' of collaborators E. Dalhoff, M. Novotny, M.P. Scherer and A. Seeger.

    The ninth meeting was called "Auditory Mechanics", the shortest title in the series. The organizers were Fred Nuttall, Tianying Ren, Karl Grosh, Richard Walker, Peter Gillespie and Egbert de Boer. The meeting was held in Portland, Oregon, USA, a city providing an inspiring intellectual environment and located in a state of infinite beauty.

    It is stressed that there is no learned society, no international scientific committee, no institute or funding body that has continually supported this series of symposia. In all cases individual support has been sought (and found) from societies, associations and industries. Although the titles of the symposia do not mention it, the work reported in the proceedings books constitutes the sole and indispensable basis for the study, prevention and cure of hearing defects, and all efforts to improve the life of people who are hard-of-hearing.