Paul is interested in the sensory systems of marine mammals and started with vision in clawless otters. Lately he has focused on hearing and echolocation in cetaceans. I have worked closely with collaborators to develop a reasonable way to measure hearing in cetaceans and polar bears measuring brain wave patterns and amplitudes in response to sounds. This technique has also allowed us to measure hearing while animals echolocate and we have found that they can avoid loud sound by internally ‘plugging their ears’ when necessary or by making hearing more sensitive when listening for feint echoes.
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Dr. Paul Nachtigall
Biography
Dr. Nachtigall is Director Emeritus and founder of the Marine Mammal Research Program at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, University of Hawaii at Manoa. Since retiring from teaching at Manoa, he no longer takes students as the principal advisor. He supervised Doctoral and Masters students in Psychology, Zoology, Biology and Marine Biology and remains on the Faculty in those departments. He has studied a variety of marine mammals ranging from polar bears to sperm whales and most of his studies have centered on measuring and developing an understanding of animal sensory systems. Dr. Nachtigall has worked thoughout the world. He is an honorary member of the European Association for Aquatic Mammals, edited the journal Aquatic Mammals for over 10 years, is a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America, is a former president of the Society for Marine Mammalogy and a current board member as chair of the Ethics Committee, and has served on many international boards and advisory committees. He has written or edited 7 books and published over 150 peer-reviewed research journal articles. Despite financial retirement, he remains active teaching occasional classes at Syracuse University, the University of New Hampshire and Lund University in Sweden, and continues research and writing , reviewing and consulting.