EVANSTON, Ill. --- Nina Kraus, Hugh Knowles Professor of Communication Sciences, Neurobiology, and Otolaryngology, is the recipient of The Alumnae of Northwestern University’s 2022 Alumnae Award. As a biologist and amateur musician, she thinks about sound and brain health. Kraus is a role model for women in science and technology. Through her diverse partnerships, her work on the effects of music experience on the nervous system has targeted African American and Latino children living in low-income areas. Her research on HIV takes place in under-resourced communities in China and Tanzania.
Her latest book, Of Sound Mind – How Our Brain Constructs a Meaningful Sonic World, which was written for the intellectually curious, has received national recognition. When talking about her book, Kraus notes in the Evanston Round Table: “This is my love-letter to sound, how sound connects us, its biological impact on making us us, and how it affects the world we live in. Sound is an underrecognized, powerful force in our lives. The hearing brain engages how we think, feel, move and integrate our other senses.” A Wall Street Journal review of the book notes: “Of Sound Mind offers a deeply scientific yet often poetic look at the hearing brain and provides an in-depth narrative about why such explorations are important.”