P004742 revised AU-VU:EOAS Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation

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 English AACR2 Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules Person created 2006-09-19 human Annette Alafaci updated 2019-12-13 human https://www.eoas.info/biogs/P004742b.htm person Byrne Denis AACR2 2 February 1935 23 March 2000 Place of Death Gosford, New South Wales, Australia 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.

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.

1957 1957 Education - Bachelor of Arts (BA)? Completed 1958 c. 1970 Career position - Clinician and Hearing Centre Manager at the Commonwealth Acoustic Laboratories in Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart and Adelaide 1971 1988 Career position - Researcher at the Commonwealth Acoustic Laboratories in Sydney 1989 Career position - Director of Research at the National Acoustic Laboratories (formerly the Commonwealth Acoustic Laboratories) 1999 1999 Award - Inaugural Australian Hearing Lifetime Achievement Award, Australian Government Byrne, Denis (1935-2000)

Trove

 'Byrne, Denis', in Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation, Centre for Transformative Innovation, Swinburne University of Technology Byrne, Denis Swinburne University of Technology, Centre for Transformative Innovation Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation