Dr. Richard Seewald (UCONN Ph.D. 1981) has contributed research findings in pediatric amplification for more than three decades. Dr. Seewald’s paper entitled “Selecting Amplification Characteristics for Young Hearing-Impaired Children” co-authored with his mentor and UCONN faculty member the late Dr. Mark Ross is a seminal work in the area of pediatric audiology and hearing loss treatment. Dr. Seewald’s work helped to determine how the amplification needs for infants and young children can be best met through an evidence-based approach. Dr. Seewald’s Desired Sensation Level Approach (DSL) hearing aid fitting method is the most widely used algorithm worldwide to ensure that infants and children receive appropriate amplification for loudness comfort and speech-language development.

Dr. Seewald and his research group recently received the Canadian Governor-General’s Innovation Award for their work on pediatric amplification. In Dr. Seewald’s words “Mark (Ross) began this work in the 1970s at UCONN and it was what brought me to Storrs in 1976 to become his PhD student. It is a UCONN Audiology story with a very happy ending!” Congratulations Dr. Seewald and colleagues and thank you for your contributions.