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Berkeley Lab Scientist Wins MacArthur 'Genius' Fellowship
Carl Haber, a physicist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory responsible for groundbreaking work in restoring some of the earliest known sound recordings, is one of 24 winners of the 2013 MacArthur Fellowships.
Lawrence Berkeley Lab physicist Carl Haber, a leading scientist in restoring old recordings, has won one of the prestigious MacArthur "genius" grants, the MacArthur foundation announced late tonight, Tuesday.
Haber, 54, is one of 24 people across the country named 2013 MacArthur Fellows.
Each fellow receives $625,000 over five years from the fellowship sponsor, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
Haber and his colleagues have made headlines in recent years for developing a method of restoring old recordings that "has been used to successfully play several recordings for the first time, including an 1860 phonautogram, the oldest known sound recording of a human voice, and the only known recording of Alexander Graham Bell’s voice," the MacArthur announcement said.
The approach developed by Haber and his associates around the world is called IRENE, for "Image, Reconstruct, Erase Noise, Etc.," which the MacArthur announcement described as "a non-contact method for extracting high-quality sound from degrading or even broken analog recordings on two- or three-dimensional media."
"Currently working to enable mass digitization by making the technology more affordable, portable, and flexible, Haber is poised to revolutionize the preservation of rare, damaged, and deteriorating sound recordings of immense value to our cultural heritage," the announcement said.
Another Bay Area winner is Stanford paleobotanist C. Kevin Boyce, 39, whose pioneering studies of plant fossils and contemporary plants have advanced knowledge about plant evolution.
The full list of this year's MacArthur Fellows can be found on the MacArthur Foundation website.
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Haber, 54, is one of 24 people across the country named 2013 MacArthur Fellows.
Each fellow receives $625,000 over five years from the fellowship sponsor, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
Haber and his colleagues have made headlines in recent years for developing a method of restoring old recordings that "has been used to successfully play several recordings for the first time, including an 1860 phonautogram, the oldest known sound recording of a human voice, and the only known recording of Alexander Graham Bell’s voice," the MacArthur announcement said.
The approach developed by Haber and his associates around the world is called IRENE, for "Image, Reconstruct, Erase Noise, Etc.," which the MacArthur announcement described as "a non-contact method for extracting high-quality sound from degrading or even broken analog recordings on two- or three-dimensional media."
"Currently working to enable mass digitization by making the technology more affordable, portable, and flexible, Haber is poised to revolutionize the preservation of rare, damaged, and deteriorating sound recordings of immense value to our cultural heritage," the announcement said.
Another Bay Area winner is Stanford paleobotanist C. Kevin Boyce, 39, whose pioneering studies of plant fossils and contemporary plants have advanced knowledge about plant evolution.
The full list of this year's MacArthur Fellows can be found on the MacArthur Foundation website.
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