Bill Davies
“Hi, I’m Professor Bill Davies and I lead a group researching psychoacoustics and soundscapes at the University of Salford. My PhD (1992) was in concert hall acoustics and during this I became fascinated by what makes one room sound better than another. After that I got interested in perceptual aspects of sound in lots of areas. I’ve supervised PhDs and worked with postdocs on spatial audio, product sound quality, architectural acoustics and environmental noise. I’m probably best known for my work on soundscapes, where we try to untangle the complex relationships between the physical sound field in (say) a busy urban environment, and our perception, cognition and response to it. Most of my work is interdisciplinary and I often feel like I’m on one boundary or another – I look like an engineer to psychologists and vice versa. I was diagnosed autistic in 2017, at the age of 52. Being an autistic researcher does have some advantages. I find focus and flow quite easy, and I’m very interested in many kinds of systems and structures. The social world can be quite disabling, though; I’m not good at reading and producing typical body language and facial expression, so I’m hopeless at networking. Interestingly, this hasn’t prevented me from being things like Head of Department, Associate Dean and VP of my professional body (the Institute of Acoustics). Though not all at the same time.“
You can see get 5 min video about:
(a) His soundscape research at https://vimeo.com/350857834 and
(b) His autism research at https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2990&v=QJMAus62ezo&t=3020s
Twitter: @BillJDavies
