Biographical entry
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Biographical entry
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Byrne, Denis (1935 - 2000) |
| Born: 2 February 1935. Died: 23 March 2000 Gosford, New South Wales. |
| Denis Byrne was Research Director at the National Acoustic Laboratories from 1989. He joined the company, then known as the Commonwealth Acoustic Laboratories in 1958 as a clinician. He was fundamental in the development and introduction of prescription hearing aids for the hearing impaired. This greatly improved the usefulness of hearing aids. |
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| URL: The home page for this entity is located at http://www.nal.gov.au/DenisJohnByrne.html | ||||||||||
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After completing a degree in psychology in 1957, Denis Byrne joined the Commonwealth Acoustic Laboratories as a clinician. He was soon managing their clinics in Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart and Adelaide where a standard, non-prescription hearing aid was issued to all patients. Byrne began to realise that if the aids could be adjusted and personalised to each patient they would provide a much better clarity of sound. This was not the common opinion at the time. In 1971 he was put in charge of hearing aid research at the organisation’s Sydney laboratories. Byrne soon discovered how to manipulate and select the frequency responses of hearing aids for customised use. This was the beginning of the technique which is used by the National Acoustic Laboratories (renamed in 1973) and throughout the world. In 1989 Byrne was appointed Director of Research at the newly restructured National Acoustic Laboratories, a position he held until his death. Denis Byrne was a founding member and President of the Audiological Society of Australia and the editor of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Audiology since its inception in 1979. Chronology
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Published by The University of Melbourne eScholarship Research Centre on ASAPWeb, 1994 - 2007 Originally published 1994-1999 by Australian Science Archives Project, 1999-2006 by the Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre Disclaimer, Copyright and Privacy Policy Submit any comments, questions, corrections and additions Prepared by: Acknowledgements Updated: 26 February 2007 http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/biogs/P004742b.htm |