Nelson Yuan-sheng Kiang, influential researcher in human hearing science, dies at 93

He conducted groundbreaking research into auditory physiology at MIT and Harvard Medical School, and was the founding director of the Eaton-Peabody Laboratories at Mass Eye and Ear. Nelson Yuan-sheng Kiang, an internationally recognized scientist known for his influential research into speech and hearing, as well as his dedication to enhancing academic exchange between Chinese and American scientists, died March 19 at his home in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston. He was 93. Kiang was a principal research scientist in the Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE) at MIT, and was a member of the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology (HST), which at MIT is is housed within the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES). Known for his passion for educating and mentoring young scientists, researchers, and clinicians, he established a PhD program in speech and hearing bioscience and technology (SHBT) at HST in 1992. Succeeding Kiang as co-director was Louis Braida , who had been the Henry Ellis Warren (1894) Professor Emeritus in the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the time of his death last fall. SHBT is now part of the Division of Medical Sciences at Harvard Medical School (HMS).