Skip to content
  • Projects
  • Publications
  • News
  • About us
    • Our team
    • PhD students
    • Eriksholm’s timeline
    • History of hearing aids
    • Partnerships
    • Contact us
  • Projects
  • Publications
  • News
  • About us
    • Our team
    • PhD students
    • Eriksholm’s timeline
    • History of hearing aids
    • Partnerships
    • Contact us
  • Projects
  • Publications
  • News
  • About us
    • Our team
    • PhD students
    • Eriksholm’s timeline
    • History of hearing aids
    • Partnerships
    • Contact us
  • Projects
  • Publications
  • News
  • About us
    • Our team
    • PhD students
    • Eriksholm’s timeline
    • History of hearing aids
    • Partnerships
    • Contact us
Back
James Harte

James Michael Harte

Senior Director

“I hope to see a future where there is a convergence of biological science and engineering in hearing health. I hope that combination therapies between regenerative approaches and hearing aid treatment can help to mitigate the weaknesses of either alone.”

As Senior Director of Eriksholm, which are your primary areas of attention?

My main role as head of Eriksholm is to set high level research strategy and direction to ensure both scientific and business impact. As a senior leader, I am also responsible for the working environment for our team, striving to create opportunities for growth and development and an atmosphere that embraces and utilizes diversity. Finally, I am responsible for external university engagement and long-term research partnerships.

As Senior Director of Eriksholm, which are your primary areas of attention?

My main role as head of Eriksholm is to set high level research strategy and direction to ensure both scientific and business impact. As a senior leader, I am also responsible for the working environment for our team, striving to create opportunities for growth and development and an atmosphere that embraces and utilizes diversity. Finally, I am responsible for external university engagement and long-term research partnerships.

What originally triggered your interest in the hearing care field?

I was originally educated as an engineer, specialized in acoustics and vibration. When the time came to choose a topic for my PhD, I was primarily interested in nonlinear statistical signal processing and had the option to follow two directions based on the academics I wanted to work with. The first was to pursue a project in defense (think hunting cigar shaped objects underwater using sound) or to explore the nonlinearities inherent in the inner ear through systems identification and otoacoustic emissions. Hearing science sat better with my own values, and the rest is history.

What originally triggered your interest in the hearing care field?

I was originally educated as an engineer, specialized in acoustics and vibration. When the time came to choose a topic for my PhD, I was primarily interested in nonlinear statistical signal processing and had the option to follow two directions based on the academics I wanted to work with. The first was to pursue a project in defense (think hunting cigar shaped objects underwater using sound) or to explore the nonlinearities inherent in the inner ear through systems identification and otoacoustic emissions. Hearing science sat better with my own values, and the rest is history.

What brought you to Eriksholm?

I started my career in academia, first as an Assistant then Associate Professor in Physiological Acoustics and Technical Audiology, at the Technical University of Denmark. I then spent a few years at the University of Warwick in the UK, at the Institute for Digital Healthcare. However, in Oct. 2013, I decided to leave academia and helped establish the Interacoustics Research Unit – essentially a new little brother/sister to Eriksholm but focused on applied research in technical audiology and diagnostics. In Jan. 2020, an opportunity arose to take over as head of Eriksholm. In both roles, I am responsible for establishing a portfolio of projects and research strategy to develop new diagnostics or rehabilitation technologies or deepen our understanding of the impact of hearing impairment for the benefit of society and our business.

What brought you to Eriksholm?

I started my career in academia, first as an Assistant then Associate Professor in Physiological Acoustics and Technical Audiology, at the Technical University of Denmark. I then spent a few years at the University of Warwick in the UK, at the Institute for Digital Healthcare. However, in Oct. 2013, I decided to leave academia and helped establish the Interacoustics Research Unit – essentially a new little brother/sister to Eriksholm but focused on applied research in technical audiology and diagnostics. In Jan. 2020, an opportunity arose to take over as head of Eriksholm. In both roles, I am responsible for establishing a portfolio of projects and research strategy to develop new diagnostics or rehabilitation technologies or deepen our understanding of the impact of hearing impairment for the benefit of society and our business.

What motivates you in your job?

I am very fortunate, I work with a team of smart, passionate and dedicated people. We have a very large degree of freedom on what we can work on at Eriksholm, and our mission is inherently motivating. We aim to explore the latest developments in basic hearing science and identify opportunities to move these findings towards clinical or commercial applications.

What motivates you in your job?

I am very fortunate, I work with a team of smart, passionate and dedicated people. We have a very large degree of freedom on what we can work on at Eriksholm, and our mission is inherently motivating. We aim to explore the latest developments in basic hearing science and identify opportunities to move these findings towards clinical or commercial applications.

What do you hope to achieve in the long run?

Untreated hearing loss impacts individual lives so much more than the coldly described reduced audibility and speech intelligibility. It disconnects you from people, leading to social isolation, poorer mental health and as has been recently emerging has negative impact on our cognitive processing. Positively impacting the management and treatment of hearing impairment at scale through partnership with industry, health systems and academia is our reason for being here.

What do you hope to achieve in the long run?

Untreated hearing loss impacts individual lives so much more than the coldly described reduced audibility and speech intelligibility. It disconnects you from people, leading to social isolation, poorer mental health and as has been recently emerging has negative impact on our cognitive processing. Positively impacting the management and treatment of hearing impairment at scale through partnership with industry, health systems and academia is our reason for being here.

What do you do in your spare time when you’re not working at Eriksholm?

Being physically active in nature is a big thing for me. I am a thoroughly unimpressive runner, hiker, camper, rock and mountain climber, but these are the things that keep me busy outside of work.

What do you do in your spare time when you’re not working at Eriksholm?

Being physically active in nature is a big thing for me. I am a thoroughly unimpressive runner, hiker, camper, rock and mountain climber, but these are the things that keep me busy outside of work.

What is the most exciting scientific breakthrough or invention in your time?

In hearing science we have seen a number of exciting developments in recent years. We have seen new genetic biomarkers that can allow us to predict an individual’s susceptibility for certain types of hearing loss. We have seen deeper understanding develop on the biological basis or mechanisms that lead to noise induced hearing loss. And we are starting to understand the connections between cognitive decline, dementia and untreated hearing impairment.

We are also only just beginning to see the impact of the latest tools and advances in engineering enter into rehabilitation technologies. Machine learning and data science are moving at an incredible pace, allowing us to bring context and a kind of intelligence to our hearing aids that has never been possible before.

What is the most exciting scientific breakthrough or invention in your time?

In hearing science we have seen a number of exciting developments in recent years. We have seen new genetic biomarkers that can allow us to predict an individual’s susceptibility for certain types of hearing loss. We have seen deeper understanding develop on the biological basis or mechanisms that lead to noise induced hearing loss. And we are starting to understand the connections between cognitive decline, dementia and untreated hearing impairment.

We are also only just beginning to see the impact of the latest tools and advances in engineering enter into rehabilitation technologies. Machine learning and data science are moving at an incredible pace, allowing us to bring context and a kind of intelligence to our hearing aids that has never been possible before.

What do you hope will happen in future science?

If I were to speculate, I hope to see a future where there is a convergence of biological science and engineering in hearing health. I hope that combination therapies between regenerative approaches and hearing aid treatment can help to mitigate the weaknesses of either alone.

I hope to see true personalized medicine develop for hearing. i.e. through genetic testing. Understanding monogenetic losses is of course hugely valuable, but understanding the myriad of genes that support or contribute to earlier onset or faster onset presbycusis could impact a huge number of people. I believe this could pave the way for personalized medicine based on genetic biomarkers.

I also hope we will tease apart the thorny questions around causation in the correlative links we have so far seen with cognitive decline and untreated hearing health. This could lead to better recommendations, treatment and prognosis of hearing impairment and its negative psycho-social impacts.

What do you hope will happen in future science?

If I were to speculate, I hope to see a future where there is a convergence of biological science and engineering in hearing health. I hope that combination therapies between regenerative approaches and hearing aid treatment can help to mitigate the weaknesses of either alone.

I hope to see true personalized medicine develop for hearing. i.e. through genetic testing. Understanding monogenetic losses is of course hugely valuable, but understanding the myriad of genes that support or contribute to earlier onset or faster onset presbycusis could impact a huge number of people. I believe this could pave the way for personalized medicine based on genetic biomarkers.

I also hope we will tease apart the thorny questions around causation in the correlative links we have so far seen with cognitive decline and untreated hearing health. This could lead to better recommendations, treatment and prognosis of hearing impairment and its negative psycho-social impacts.

Publications

To see related publications, please follow this link and type in the scientist’s name in the free text search field. The result shows publications by this scientist during collaboration with Eriksholm Research Centre and/or with relevance to current work.

Loading...
Neher, T., Behrens, T., Kragelund, L., Petersen, A.S. (2008). Spatial Unmasking in Aided Hearing-Impaired Listeners and the Need for Training. In: Dau, T., Buchholz, J.M., Harte, J., Christiansen, T.U. (Eds.) Auditory Signal Processing in Hearing-Impaired Listeners [Conference Proceedings]. the First International Symposium on Audiological and Auditory Research, ISAAR, p. 515-522.
Naylor, G., Johannesson, R.B., Rønne, F.M. (2008). An investigation of effective SNR-change through amplitude-compression hearing aids. In: Dau, T., Buchholz, J.M., Harte, J., Christiansen, T.U. (Eds.) Auditory Signal Processing in Hearing-Impaired Listeners [Conference Proceedings]. the First International Symposium on Audiological and Auditory Research, ISAAR, p. 595-600.
Lunner, T., Thorén, E.S., Rudner, M., Foo, C., Rönnberg, J. (2008). Exceeding individual working memory capacity restrains aided speech recognition performance – effects in complex listening situations and effects of acclimatization. In: Dau, T., Buchholz, J.M., Harte, J., Christiansen, T.U. (Eds.) Auditory Signal Processing in Hearing-Impaired Listeners [Conference Proceedings]. the First International Symposium on Audiological and Auditory Research, ISAAR, p. 551-559.
Laugesen, S., Jensen, N.S., Maas, P., Nielsen, C. (2008). Variations in ‘adequate’ own-voice level used by speakers and preferred by listeners when communicating across a distance. In: Dau, T., Buchholz, J.M., Harte, J., Christiansen, T.U. (Eds.) Auditory Signal Processing in Hearing-Impaired Listeners [Conference Proceedings]. the First International Symposium on Audiological and Auditory Research, ISAAR, p. 541-550.
Elberling, C., Cebulla, M., Stürzebecher, E. (2008). Simultaneous multiple stimulation of the ASSR. In: Dau, T., Buchholz, J.M., Harte, J., Christiansen, T.U. (Eds.) Auditory Signal Processing in Hearing-Impaired Listeners [Conference Proceedings]. the First International Symposium on Audiological and Auditory Research, ISAAR, p. 201-210.
Behrens, T., Neher, T., Johannesson, R.B. (2008). Evaluation of speech corpus for assessment of spatial release from masking. In: Dau, T., Buchholz, J.M., Harte, J., Christiansen, T.U. (Eds.) Auditory Signal Processing in Hearing-Impaired Listeners [Conference Proceedings]. the First International Symposium on Audiological and Auditory Research, ISAAR, p. 449-457.
Rønne, F.M., Dau, T., Harte, J., Elberling, C. (2012). Modelling auditory evoked brainstem responses to transient stimuli. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 131, p. 3903-3913.
Rønne, F.M., Harte, J., Dau, T. (2014). Modelling auditory evoked brainstem responses to speech syllables. Can variations in cochlear tuning explain argued brainstem plasticity? In: Dau T, et al. (Eds.) Auditory Plasticity – Listening with the brain [Conference Proceedings]. the International Symposium on Audiological and Auditory Research, ISAAR, Denmark, pp.133-140
Bech, Christensen, C., Harte, J.M., Lunner, T., Kidmose, P. (2017). Ear-EEG based objective hearing threshold estimation evaluated on normal hearing subjects. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng. 2017 Aug 9. doi: 10.1109/TBME.2017.2737700.
Lopez-Poveda, E.A., Johannesen, P.T., Buzo, B.C., Rønne, F.M., Pontoppidan, N.H., Harte, J.M. (2017). On the Value of Brief Sound Audiometry as a Diagnostic Tool for Cochlear Synaptopathy [Poster]. 40th Annual MidWinter Meeting of the of Association for Research in Otolaryngology, Baltimore, MD, US.
Nuttall, A. L., Ricci, A. J., Burwood, G. W. S., Harte, J. M., Stenfelt, S., Cayé‐Thomasen, P., Ren, T., Ramamoorthy, S., Zhang, Y., Wilson, T., Lunner, T., Moore, B. C. J., & Fridberger, A. (2018). A mechanoelectrical mechanism for detection of sound envelopes in the hearing organ. Nature Communications, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06725-w
Christensen, C. B., Harte, J. M., Lunner, T., & Kidmose, P. (2018). Ear-EEG-Based Objective Hearing Threshold estimation evaluated on normal hearing subjects. IEEE Transactions on Bio-medical Engineering/IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, 65(5), 1026–1034. https://doi.org/10.1109/tbme.2017.2737700
Malmberg, M., Thorén, E. S., Öberg, M., Lunner, T., Andersson, G., & Kähäri, K. (2018b). Experiences of an Internet-based aural rehabilitation (IAR) program for hearing aid users: a qualitative study. International Journal of Audiology, 57(8), 570–576. https://doi.org/10.1080/14992027.2018.1453171

People are our most
valuable source of
insights

Facebook

Instagram

LinkedIn

Youtube

  • Eriksholm Research Centre
  • Rørtangvej 20
  • DK-3070 Snekkersten
  • Denmark
We are a part of Oticon, a world leader in hearing care. We share the same philosophy that people are our main source of insights
Bliv testperson
  • +45 48 29 89 00
  • mail@eriksholm.com
  • Cookie policy
  • Disclaimer

© 2025 Eriksholm – Designed by Aveo web&marketing

Manage consent to cookies
We use cookies to optimize our website and our service.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service expressly requested by the subscriber or user, or solely for the purpose of transmitting a communication via an electronic communication network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is necessary to create user profiles for the purpose of sending advertisements or to track the user on a website or across multiple websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
Preferences
{title} {title} {title}