Michael Heinz

Joint Appointment

Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering

Areas of Expertise

• Neural correlates of normal and impaired auditory perception
• noise-induced hearing loss
• precision auditory neuroscience
• models of auditory signal processing and perception

HHS Signature Research Area(s)

• Healthy Lifestyles and Vital Longevity

Biography

Michael G. Heinz is a Professor of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences and of Biomedical Engineering. Mike is a native of Baltimore, MD and grew up sailing on the Chesapeake Bay. He received an Sc.B. degree in Electrical Engineering from Brown University in 1992. He then completed a Masters in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Johns Hopkins University in 1994, where he performed psychoacoustical experiments measuring the ability of human listeners to detect signals in noise (with Craig Formby and Moise Goldstein). In 2000, he received a Ph.D. from the MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology in the area of Speech and Hearing Sciences (mentor: Laurel Carney). His dissertation involved computational and theoretical modeling to quantify the amount of information in auditory-nerve responses for psychoacoustical tasks. His post-doctoral work was in Biomedical Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (mentor: Eric Young), where his work evaluated possible neural correlates of loudness recruitment by comparing neurophysiological responses from single auditory-nerve fibers in animals with normal hearing and noise-induced hearing loss.

In 2005, he joined the faculty at Purdue as an Assistant Professor, where he and his lab members have been investigating the relation between neurophysiological and perceptual responses to sound with normal and impaired hearing through the coordinated use of neurophysiology, computational modeling, and psychoacoustics. He teaches courses in both SLHS and BME. In 2010, he was elected a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) “for contributions to understanding the relation between physiology and psychophysics in hearing”, and served as Chair of the ASA Technical Committee on Psychological and Physiological Acoustics from 2011-2014. In 2016, he was chosen as a University Faculty Scholar, and in 2021 he received the Career Research Award from the College of Health and Human Sciences at Purdue. He currently serves as the Director of an NIH-funded (T32) Interdisciplinary Training Program in Auditory Neuroscience (TPAN), and serves as the Associate Head for Research in SLHS. He also serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology (JARO).

Education

• PhD, 2000, MIT

Websites

• Auditory Neurophysiology and Modeling Lab
• Interdisciplinary Training Program in Auditory Neuroscience (TPAN)
• Purdue Institute for Integrative Neuroscience
• Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering

Social Media Accounts

• Heinz Lab Purdue Twitter

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

• SLHS DEI Committee

Current Courses

• SLHS 504 - The Auditory Periphery
• SLHS 444 - Introduction to Research in Communication Sciences and Disorders
• BME 511 - Biomedical Signal Processing

Selected Honors/Awards

• Career Research Achievement Award, College of Health and Human Sciences, Purdue University - 2021
• Purdue Online Excellence in Course Design and Teaching Award (w/ J. Simpson) - 2020
• Fellow, Academic Leadership Program, Big 10 Academic Alliance - 2019-2020
• University Faculty Scholar, Purdue University - 2016-2021
• Fellow, Acoustical Society of America - 2010

Selected Grants

• Principal Investigator, Effects of sensorineural hearing loss on robust speech coding, NIH (NIDCD, R01-DC009838), A. Grama, H. Bharadwaj (Co-Is) 7/1/23-6/30/28. Total $3,112,990.
• Co-Director, Interdisciplinary Training in Auditory Neuroscience. National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (T32-DC016853), E. Bartlett (Co-Director). Period: 7/1/18-6/30/28. 5-yr Total: $766,645.
• Principal Investigator, Cross-species characterization of peripheral and central effects of occupational and blast exposures: Towards a diagnostic and therapeutic testing framework. DoD-CDMRP (W81XWH-21-1-0829). E. Bartlett, H. Bharadwaj (Co-PIs). Period: 9/1/21-8/30/24. Total: $357,470.
• Co-PI, Individualized assays of supra-threshold hearing deficits. National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (R01-DC015989). Hari Bharadwaj (co-PI), Jennifer Simpson (co-I). Period: 3/1/17-2/28/24. Total: $1,883,662.
• Mentor, Place and Time Processing of Pitch in the Context of Cochlear Dysfunction, NIH Pre-doctoral Fellowship (NIDCD, F30-DC020916), (PI: A. Sivaprakasam; Co-Sponsors: H. Bharadwaj, Rick Nelson), 1/1/23-12/31/25, TDC: $155,256.

Professional Affiliations

• Association for Research in Otolaryngology
• Acoustical Society of America
• Society for Neuroscience