Barbara Shinn-Cunningham

Barbara Shinn-Cunningham is the Glen de Vries Dean of the Mellon College of Science at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and holds professorships in Psychology, Biomedical Engineering, and Electrical and Computer Engineering. She is also the founding director of CMU's Neuroscience Institute. Her research focuses on auditory neuroscience, particularly auditory attention, binaural hearing, and multisensory integration, with applications to hearing disorders and assistive technologies. Shinn-Cunningham earned her B.S. from Brown University and her M.S. and Ph.D. from MIT in Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Education:

• B.S., Electrical Engineering, Brown University (1986)
• M.S., Electrical & Computer Engineering, MIT (1988)
• Ph.D., Electrical & Computer Engineering, MIT (1994)

Research Interests: She investigates how the brain processes sound in complex environments, including spatial hearing, auditory attention deficits in aging and clinical populations, and the neural mechanisms underlying cochlear synaptopathy. Her work integrates behavioral studies, neuroimaging (EEG, fMRI), and computational modeling to bridge basic science and translational research.

Awards & Recognition:

• Fellow, Acoustical Society of America (2009)
• Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow (2000)
• National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellow (2008)
• Helmholtz-Rayleigh Interdisciplinary Silver Medal (2019)

Advising & Grants: She mentors a diverse team of graduate students and postdocs, focusing on training the next generation of auditory neuroscientists. Her grants include funding from NSF, NIH, and the Department of Defense. She leads the LiMN Lab, which explores neural mechanisms of sensory processing and attention.

Labs & Teams: Director of the Lab in Multisensory Neuroscience (LiMN) at CMU, part of the Carnegie Mellon Neuroscience Institute. Collaborates with engineers, clinicians, and marine biologists to advance auditory technology and neuroimaging techniques.