Boys Town’s Kaylah Lalonde, Ph.D., Awarded the Early Career Research from the American Auditory Society
Monday, April 24, 2023
Kaylah Lalonde, Ph.D., Director of the Audiovisual Speech Processing Laboratory, was awarded the Early Career Research Award at the 50th Annual Scientific and Technology Conference of the American Auditory Society (AAS) held in Scottsdale, Arizona, in early March.
Dr. Lalonde's primary line of study focuses on audiovisual speech enhancement, the way listeners use visual cues on a speaker's face to help understand speech and how the use of said cues changes over development from infancy to young adulthood. She also studies how pediatric hearing loss may change the way children learn to use those cues.
Dr. Lalonde attended this conference as a graduate student and feels fortunate to have been able to share about her own experience to students in attendance.
“I just felt so honored to be receiving this award, and it allowed me to talk to the students in the room about my journey and how we don't always feel like we are the most impressive, but that doesn't mean we aren't doing a great job and progressing in our careers and in how we contribute to the field," said Dr. Lalonde.
Dr. Lalonde first learned about Boys Town National Research Hospital and the Center for Hearing and Speech Perception while attending those early AAS conferences. Boys Town has historically had a significant number of scientists presenting research at the annual conference, so Boys Town was on Dr. Lalonde's radar early.
Being a Boys Town researcher may have helped Dr. Lalonde receive this prestigious award.
“Being at Boys Town has allowed me to be more productive than I might have been in a faculty position at a university," said Dr. Lalonde. “Being able to collaborate with so many people within Boys Town National Research Hospital has also been a big contributor to productivity."
Dr. Lalonde hopes that this productivity and the work being done with children who have hearing loss will change the way that we diagnose and treat these children. In the long term, it may even inform the signal processing that happens in hearing aids.
Also honored at the AAS conference was Monita Chatterjee, Ph.D., Director of the Auditory Prostheses and Perception Laboratory, who received the Carhart Memorial Award.
“Monita is my internal mentor," said Dr. Lalonde, “so that was really special to me."
To learn more about Dr. Chatterjee's award,
click here.
