With interests in sound and psychology, I became involved in auditory perceptual research during my first year of study as a University of Washington undergraduate after taking a course in acoustics from Chris Stecker. Continuing these studies as a graduate student (and continuing to work in the Stecker lab), I completed a Ph.D. in Speech and Hearing Sciences with a focus in psychoacoustics in 2012. A brief postdoctoral fellowship with Ruth Litovsky at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2012) and an extended postdoctoral fellowship with Dan Tollin at the University of Colorado School of Medicine (2013-2017) provided additional training in the areas of auditory perception, auditory physiology and audio/hearing devices. I returned to the University of Washington to join the faculty of the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences in 2018. Apart from my primary interests in human spatial hearing, I have a minor interest in fish, particularly anadromous salmonids of the beautiful Pacific Northwest (Projects).

David Audet Jr, Au.D.

DJ is a 3rd-year Ph.D. student in the lab. After completing his Bachelors of Science in Communication Disorders at the University of Massachussetts – Amherst, DJ relocated to Seattle and completed his Doctorate of Audiology at the University of Washington. DJ became involved with research in the Spatial Hearing Lab as a senior Au.D. student. His ongoing work as a Ph.D. student builds on this foundation, combining his interests in auditory plasticity (particularly within the auditory localization system), learning, and noise abatement. In his free time, DJ enjoys being a proud cat-dad, connecting with friends, video games, and whittling!

William Gray

William is a 4th-year Ph.D. student in the lab. After graduating from Northwestern University with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering, William spent 11 years working in industry as a radar systems engineer, during which time he also completed an M.S. in Electrical Engineering at the University of Southern California. William’s interests include spatial hearing during the use of clinical hearing devices, virtual auditory environments, and the creation of virtual sound-stages, particularly as enabled by bone conduction devices. His current work concerns lateralization capability based on transmission of interaural cues via bilateral bone conduction transducers. William enjoys music (a lab theme) and spending time with his family.

Aoi Hunsaker (Study Coordinator)

Aoi completed her B.S. in Speech and Hearing Sciences at the University of Washington, during which time she also conducted research in the Spatial Hearing Lab as a student in the departmental Honors program. After spending 2 years teaching English in Japan, she is back in the lab as a Research Study Coordinator! In addition to her work coordinating and supporting testing across multiple lab projects, Aoi continues to cultivate interests in neuroscience and language/lingustics, software and hardware development, and scientific illustration (some of Aoi’s illustrations appear on the Projects page!).

Sanghmitra Arvindekar, Au.D. (Research Audiologist)

Sanghmitra completed her B.S. in Audiology and Speech Language Pathology and later her Doctorate of Audiology at Towson University. During her time as an Au.D. student she became involved in research related to hearing protection and communications devices at the Army Research Laboratory. Following completion of her Au.D., Sanghmitra worked for 6 years as a clinical audiologist. Combining her clinical and research experience, Sanghmitra recently joined the lab and is actively involved in subject screening/enrollment and perceptual testing.

Lani Curry (Research assistant)

Lani completed her B.S. in Speech and Hearing Sciences at the University of Washington and has spent the past several years working with children with special needs. With long-term aspirations for a career in speech-language pathology, Lani recently returned to the University of Washington and joined the lab as a part-time research assistant, assisting with ongoing projects and data collection.

Nicole (Jahng) Diebag, Au.D. (Au.D. Capstone student) – Currently a pediatric audiologist at Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital, Salt Lake City, UT

Christy Dong, B.S. (Undergraduate student) – Currently pursuing Doctorate of Audiology

Paula Orrego, B.S. (Undergraduate student) – Currently pursuing Master’s of Speech-Language Pathology