DEGA Helmholtz Medal for the acoustic life's work of Klaus Genuit

18. March 2025

Copenhagen, March 18, 2025 - Prof. Dr.-Ing. Klaus Genuit, founder, shareholder and long-standing Managing Director of HEAD acoustics GmbH and Chairman of the Board of the HEAD Genuit Foundation, today got awarded the prestigious Helmholtz Medal of the DEGA for his life's work during the opening ceremony of the DAGA in Copenhagen. The medal is the highest award in the field of acoustics.

“This award fills me with pride and great joy. I have dedicated my entire professional career to psychoacoustics. It was particularly important to me to focus scientific attention on people and their “hearing” receiver. Today, human perception is an indispensable aspect of environmental studies and product development across all industries,” says Prof. Genuit.

Genuit is being honored for his outstanding achievements in psychoacoustics, vehicle acoustics and the successful transfer between science and practical application.

“Binaural measurement technology and psychoacoustics - revolution or evolution of acoustic measurement technology?”

This was the title of Genuit's lecture, which took the audience on a journey back in time to the beginnings of binaural measurement technology. “The artificial head microphone enables precise, reproducible and calibrated acoustic documentation of sound events,” said Prof. Genuit. This is of particular interest in the auditory evaluation of sounds, especially after changes or when comparing different measurements. Thanks to free-field equalization, the artificial head microphone signals can also be used for metrological evaluations.

After the aurally accurate recording of sound events, the desire arose to also analyze the subjectively perceived auditory sound quality, taking psychoacoustics into account. With the help of psychoacoustic parameters such as loudness, sharpness, tonality, roughness, fluctuation and impulsiveness, the auditory impression of sound events can be considered in a more differentiated way. Soundscape standard 12913 was the first standard to require binaural measurement technology in both the ISO and DIN standards and to recommend psychoacoustic analysis.

Genuit attributes secondary importance to the question of whether this is a revolution or merely an evolution of existing acoustic measurement technology. The fact is that the soundscape standard he helped to develop represents a significant extension for the assessment of sound situations, resulting in an advantage for everyone. People and their perception are at the center of the acoustic view of the world.

The HEAD Genuit Foundation has been supporting research work (endowed professorships and doctoral students) in this field since 2008. This summer, the newly created graduate college MOSAIC (Multi-dOmain and context-dependent Spatial approaches to AcoustIC well-being) will be launched with eight university institutes.