h1

 

Janina Fels is a full professor and director of the "Chair and Institute for Hearing Technology and Acoustics" at RWTH Aachen University, Germany, since November 2020. From October 2012 to November 2020, she was Professor for Medical Acoustics at RWTH Aachen University, Germany. She studied electrical engineering (diploma 2002) at RWTH Aachen University, Germany, where she received her PhD from the Institute of Technical Acoustics (PhD 2008). In 2009, she was a post-doc at the "Center for Applied Hearing Research (CAHR)" at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and Widex, Denmark. From December 2012 to October 2015, she was a visiting scientist at the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, Structural and Functional Organization of the Brain (INM-1) at Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany.

In March 2013, she was awarded the Lothar Cremer Prize by the German Acoustics Society for her innovative and pioneering work in the field of binaural technology and medical acoustics. In January 2014, she was appointed to the Young College of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Arts. In March 2020, she was elected as a Review Board Member for Acoustics (Review Board Mechanics and Constructive Mechanical Engineering) in the Review Board Election of the German Research Foundation (DFG).

She was General Co-Chair of the DAGA 2016 conference (Annual Conference on Acoustics in Germany) and Vice-Chair of the International Congress on Acoustics, ICA 2019, in Aachen, Germany.

Her research interests include expanding interdisciplinary research in the field of perception and processing of sound in complex acoustic environments for various listener groups. She studies perception and communication in complex acoustic scenarios, for example, noise exposure in classrooms or open-plan offices. She develops methods that allow listening experiments in artificially created complex acoustic scenes to be as lifelike as possible, using advanced technical systems.

orcid.org/0000-0002-8694-7750

Janina Fels on ResearchGate

Janina Fels on Google Scholar

Publikationen

Education

10/1996–03/2002	Degree-Diploma (Dipl.-Ing.) in Electrical Engineering specializing in "Communications Engineering" at RWTH Aachen University
09/2001–03/2002	Degree-Diploma thesis at the Institute of Technical Acoustics at RWTH Aachen University, Degree awarded: Dipl. Ing.
04/2002–01/2008	PhD. Dr.-Ing. Title of thesis “From Children to Adults: How Binaural Cues and Ear Canal Impedances Grow”. (Class: "summa cum laude”)

Professional Experience

04/2001–07/2001	Research Assistant at RPG Diffusor Systems Inc., USA
04/2002–01/2008	Research Assistant at the Institute of Technical Acoustics, RWTH Aachen University
02/2008–09/2012	Senior Engineer at the Institute of Technical Acoustics, RWTH Aachen University
05/2009–11/2009	6 months research period of residence (post-doc) at the Center for Applied Hearing Research (CHAR), DTU Department of Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark and Widex A/S, Audiological Research, Værløse, Denmark
10/2010–09/2011	Parental leave
10/2011, 05/2012	Offer for the full professorship for "Communications Acoustics" at the University of Oldenburg (tenure track, declined)
10/2012–07/2016	Assistant Professor at the RWTH Aachen (W1, tenure track) for "Medical Acoustics"
12/2012–10/2015	Guest Researcher at the Institute for Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-1), Forschungszentrum Jülich
06/2014–08/2014	Parental leave
07/2016–11/2020	Full Professor for Medical Acoustics (W2)
04/2020	Offer for the full professorship for "Acoustics" at the TU Graz (declined)
since 11/2020	Full Professor for Hearing Technology and Acoustics (W3)

Areas of interest (focus)

• Auditory Cognition in interactive Virtual Environments (DFG priority program SPP2236 (coordinator))
• Classroom Acoustics (interaction between room acoustics – hearing – speaking)
• Binaural Technology/Spatial Audio
• Technical systems for ENT and Audiology
• Sound Design and Sound Quality
• Noise control and noise assessment (binaural perception and auditory selective attention)
• Psychoacoustics: binaural perception in complex environments; binaural sharpness, roughness, and tonality
• Spatial Perception in fMRI and MEG

Miscellaneous

• Member of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), German Society for Audiology (DGA), German Society for Acoustics (DEGA) and Member of the AES Technical Committee "Spatial Audio"
• Reviewer for peer-reviewed publications for the journals “Acta Acustica united with Acustica”, “Journal of the Audio Engineering Society”, “Journal of the Acoustical Society of America”, “Biomedical Engineering”, “International Journal of Human-Computer Studies”, “Noise and Health”, “Computer-Aided Design”, “Trends in Hearing”, “Applied Acoustics”, “IEEE Transactions on Audio, Speech and Language Processing” and various conferences
• Organization of special sessions at scientific conferences (DAGA annually since 2009 / NAG 2009 / ICSA 2011 / ASA 2013 / ICA 2013 / DGA 2014 / EuroNoise 2015) and organizer and chairperson for scientific conferences (Aachener Acoustics Colloquium 2009-2012, DAGA 2016 Conference (general co-chair), ICA 2019 (co-Chair)
• Reviewer for DFG, Humboldt-Foundation, and Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (ÖAW): research grants / research groups
• Member of the standards committee NA 001-01-02-08 workshop "Psychoacoustic Measurement Techniques" of the AK Acoustics, Noise Reduction and Vibration Engineering (NALS) at the DIN and VDI
• Member of the standards committee NA 001-01-02-12 AK "Soundscape - Wahrnehmungsbasierte Beurteilung der Qualität von Umgebungsgeräuschen", (national mirror organization of the working group ISO/TC 043/SC 01/WG 54 "Perceptual assessment of soundscape quality") of the Acoustics, Noise Control and Vibration Engineering Standards Committee in DIN and VDI (NALS)
• Equal Opportunity Commissioner of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology of RWTH Aachen University since June 2013 and Deputy Member of the Equal Opportunities Commission in the Senate of RWTH Aachen University since December 2012
• Member of the „Junges Kolleg“ of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts since January 2014
• Head of the Technical Committee "Hörakustik" of the DEGA March 2017 - March 2023
• Member of JARA-BRAIN
• Member of the Advisory Board (Vorstandsrat) of the German Acoustical Society (DEGA) October 2015 - March 2023.
• Elected Member for DFG Review Board 2020-2023 (Fachkollegiatin): 402-04 Akustik (Acoustics).
• Elected Member of the Steering Committee of the Profile Area Medical Science and Technology, RWTH Aachen University, 2020-2022.
• Elected Member of the Exploratory Research Space (ERS) Selection Group, RWTH Aachen University since 2020.

Awards

• 2008 Siemens Award for the promotion of scientific talent in medical physics
• 2009 Borchers Badge by the RWTH Aachen
• 2013 Lothar-Cremer-Prize by DEGA for outstanding achievements of young scientists
• 2014 appointed to the Junge Kolleg der Nordrhein-Westfälischen Akadamie der Wissenschaften und Künste (Young Scholars'College of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts)
• 2014 1. prize in a poster competition at the 40th Annual Conference for Acoustics, DAGA 2014, DEGA
• 2017 "FAMOS für Familie" - award for efforts in family-friendliness management, sustainable leadership and healthy work-life balance from the RWTH Aachen University
• 2018 Best Paper Award „Journal of the Audio Engineering Society“

Lectures:

• Medical Acoustics: Techniologies for Hearing Systems and Ultrasound (winter term) and Medical Acoustics: Audiology and Voice (summer term)
• Psychoacoustics and Methods for Listening Experiments (winter term)
• Einführung in die Akustik
• Instrument-based procedures in phoniatrics and pedaudiology for Bachelor students of logopedics (summer term)
• lecture series Bionics (winter term)
• Fundamentals in Biomedical Engineering, practical training

Publications