NEW YORK—A handful of students are getting some kudos from the Audio Engineering Society, as the organization has announced the recipients of the 2016 AES Educational Grants for Graduate Students in Audio Engineering. Eleven grad students received new grants or renewals of grants.
AES named Sina Hafezi and David Moffat as its 2016 Harman Scholars. Hafezi received a renewal grant to continue his PhD studies in speech and audio processing at Imperial College London. Moffat’s grant will help with his PhD candidacy in computer science at Queen Mary University of London. These scholarships are offered from Harman International Industries to encourage excellence in audio, per AES’s press release.
The Bruce Swedien Scholarship is designed to aid young recording engineers who follow Swedien’s mantra to put “music first.” This year’s recipient was Natasha Branch, who is pursuing an MFA in recording arts and technologies at MTSU.
NYU graduate student Juan Simon Calle, who is studying performing arts and technology, has been tapped for the Emil Torick Scholar distinction, which is handed to a student with “exceptional career goals.”
Given to students who excel in both technology and music, this year’s John Eargle Award was renewed to Jonathan Kaspy, a sound recording student at McGill University.
Named after Grateful Dead system engineer Don Pearson, the Don and Fran Pearson Award goes to a student with an interest in audio research and focus on live sound, music and innovation. This year’s recipient is Ross Hammond, a grad student in audio engineering at the University of Derby, U.K.
Another renewal was provided to Spencer Shafter, who will once again receive the Larry Estrin Scholarship. The scholarship is meant for students with a commitment to audio engineering in the broadcast industry. Shafter is currently a MM student in music technology and performing arts at NYU.
Rounding out the grants are Ana Djordjevic, a PhD candidate in EE from Nis, Serbia, who received the Advancing Audio – Tom Kite Scholarship. Jose Ernesto Valenzuela Arena of NYU and Jack Kelly from McGill University both received renewal grants; Jennifer Nulsen from McGill University also received a grant.
