Louise Hickson, PhD

Dr. Hickson has significantly contributed to the enhancement of the lives of hearing-impaired individuals and their families, to our scientific knowledge, and to the future careers of her many postgraduate students who have benefited from her guidance and mentoring. Her work is cross-disciplinary, bridging the gaps between clinical practice and research, between audiology and other health sciences, between technology and the user, and between quantitative and qualitative methodologies.

Her clinical impacts are highlighted in the adoption of her Active Communication Enhancement (ACE) audiological rehabilitation (AR) program by clinics across Australia and in her work with the IDA Institute, for which she is chair of the Advisory Board, a faculty member, and a leading participant in the development of innovative tools for AR. She has also advised hearing rehabilitation service providers in Australia and overseas, and is a member of the federal government’s Hearing Services Consultancy Committee.

As a scientist, her rigorous, timely, and innovative studies have addressed clinically relevant questions about the effectiveness of AR and ways it can be improved. Her contributions are reflected in an impressive record of over 170 scientific publications since 1992, addressing topics such as help-seeking for hearing loss, patient-centered audiological rehabilitation, measurement of hearing aid outcomes, and the impact of hearing loss on the unimpaired partner. It is noteworthy that almost without exception her research has direct clinical implications for the practice of rehabilitative audiology.

Dr. Hickson is a professor of audiology, Head of the School of Health and Rehabilitative Sciences, and director of the Communication Disability Centre at The University of Queensland. Twice she has received awards from the university recognizing her excellence in teaching and supervision. Her mentoring skills are further reflected in the many students that have gone from her laboratory to become successful independent scientists in their own right.

Finally, Dr. Hickson is a generous member of the scientific community. Not only is she an editor of theInternational Journal of Audiology, but she has served on organizing committees of conferences, she is a member of the International Collegium of Rehabilitative Audiology (ICRA)a group of 50 elected researchers from around the world with interests in habilitation and rehabilitation, and she is a highly sought after lecturer and keynote speaker. In the last few years, she has been an invited speaker at conferences in Russia, Sweden, Brazil, and Poland, to name but a few.

Dr. Louise Hickson has made internationally significant contributions to the field of rehabilitative audiologythe profession is lucky to have her. Congratulations.