Sarah Verhulst

Sarah Verhulst is an Associate Professor in Hearing Technology at the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Ghent University, joining in 2016 after academic training at the Technical University of Denmark, Boston University, and Harvard Medical School. Her Hearing Technology Lab (6 members) employs an interdisciplinary approach combining EEG, sound perception, machine learning, and computational neuroscience to advance machine hearing, AI-based hearing diagnostics, and hearing restoration for noise-exposed and aging populations.

• Research Focus: Computational modeling of the auditory periphery (cochlea, auditory nerve, brainstem) to study cochlear synaptopathy, hidden hearing loss, and speech-in-noise intelligibility.
• Key Projects: EIC Transition Grant EarDiTech, ERC Starting Grant RobSpear, FWO Machine-Hearing 2.0, and ERA-NET CoSySpeech.

Scientific Awards include the Niedersachsen Wissenschaftspreis (2016), APAN Young Investigator Spotlight Prize (2018), and Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium Award (2022). She actively participates in international workshops (e.g., Auditory Modeling, Speech-in-Noise) and serves as a technical committee member of the Acoustical Society of America.