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Professor Ian Russell

Neuroscientist Professor Ian Russell will be awarded the highest honour in his field at an event in California next week. 

The Association for Research in Otolaryngology (ARO) has chosen Ian to receive its Award of Merit, in recognition of his "exceptional contributions to the field of hearing" during a 35-year research career at Sussex. 

The award, which will single him out as one of the most eminent in his field, will be presented during the organisation's annual MidWinter Meeting on Monday 8 February. 

Ian, a Fellow of the Royal Society, said that the award is as much for his colleagues as it is for him. He said: "The award is made for research that was done entirely at Sussex. 

"I have been incredibly fortunate to have worked with outstanding collaborators and the award means international recognition for the outstanding group of scientists with whom it has been my great pleasure to work with over the years in the Hearing Group at Sussex." 

Professor Corné Kros and former Sussex Professor Alan Palmer, who is now Assistant Director of the MRC Institute of Hearing Research, wrote to the ARO in support of Ian's nomination. They wrote: "Unlike many recipients of this award, whose magnificent achievements have resulted from concentrated intellectual investment in a single challenging area, [Ian] is an intellectual butterfly. 

"His agile mind alights on problems and issues through broad-ranging interests and wide reading and he pursues whatever engages him. 

"[Ian] has never been a regular contributor to the larger international conferences, preferring to get on with his research and allow his publications to speak for him. 

"What he has been and continues to be is an inordinately creative researcher... For these exceptional contributions to the field of hearing he is an excellent and deserving recipient of the ARO Award of Merit." 

Professor Laurence Pearl, Head of the School of Life Sciences, said: "Since I joined the University in August, Ian has really impressed me with his enthusiasm for science and his profound understanding of the important questions in the field. 

"This award is a well-deserved recognition of an energetic and decisive intellect, whose research makes real contributions to human health." 

Before receiving the award, Ian will give a 45-minute lecture on some of his most recent research, including his latest discovery that the annoying whine of male and female mosquitoes forms the basis for sexual recognition. 

The ARO, a scientific society of researchers in hearing, speech, balance, smell, taste, and diseases of the head and neck, established the Award of Merit in 1977. Previous winners include the Nobel Prize winner Georg von Békésy. 

Ian will be only the fourth English person to receive the award. 

The MidWinter Meeting takes place between 6 and 10 February at the Disneyland Hotel in California, USA.