Shinn-Cunningham Elected to ARO Council

Carnegie Mellon Neuroscience Institute Director Barbara Shinn-Cunningham was elected Secretary/ Treasurer of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology (ARO). ARO is the world’s largest organization of hearing and balance researchers, including scientists, engineers and physicians.

“This is quite an honor because ARO brings together everyone from cognitive neuroscientists to people working on the ear at the molecular level,” Shinn-Cunningham said. “The membership includes researchers who study human physiology, animal physiology, human perception, genetics, and more—anyone working on the auditory system.”

As Secretary/Treasurer, Shinn-Cunningham will be a part of an eight-person council, managing governance and finances for the association.  She will serve a three-year term beginning in 2021.

This month, Shinn-Cunningham will travel to San Jose, California to attend the ARO Midwinter Meeting, where members will present nearly 300 oral presentations and 1096 posters on diverse topics.

In her research, Shinn-Cunningham uses behavioral, neuroimaging, and computational methods to understand auditory processing, from how sound is encoded in the inner ear to how cognitive networks modulate the representation of auditory information in the brain. She leads the Neuroscience Institute, which brings together faculty and students from across the CMU to conduct multi-disciplinary work to advance the state of brain science.