44
that we really moved sensory biology forward with this meeting. But, the thing that
every participant remembers in greatest detail was the FOOD!!!
This happened because we were given some private funding for the meeting and
we decided that one of the best ways to foster interactions was to keep everyone
together during lunch (rather than going to other sites). So, on Bill Tavolga’s suggestion, we hired a local French chef, Alain Mons, to do lunch, breaks and the fi nal
banquet. We planned lunch every day, with only a light lunch on Thursday because
participants had the afternoon off to relax. Well, each lunch was a culinary masterpiece, and the breaks were the best we have ever experienced (even to now!). And
we accomplished our goal—everyone stayed around for long lunch breaks, and
there were two hours of lively and exciting discussion each day in the company of
brilliant food. And, on Thursday, when we fi gured people would “eat and run,” the
sandwiches were extraordinary and no one left.
The banquet was another experience! The food, as expected, was fantastic. But
what we remember most vividly, during the closing “thank you’s” for the meeting,
the organizers got polite applause and some nice words were said about our organization skills. But, when Chef Mons was introduced, he got a fi ve-minute standing
ovation!!!
6 SHAR
One day, we were sitting around Dick’s house in Falmouth, MA, and got into a
conversation about various books in the fi eld of auditory neuroscience. One thing
led to another, and for some reason, we came up with the idea of editing a series of
books on various aspects of hearing. We quickly came up with the idea for eight
books and fi gured that would pretty much cover the fi eld. We broached this idea
with Dr. William Curtis, our Springer editor at that time (now president of Springer
in the USA) and he immediately “bought” the idea and gave us considerable encouragement and support. We decided to start with just two books, one on anatomy and
one on physiology. We realized that there are many areas in which neither of us is
expert or even knew the major “players,” so we decided to invite coeditors to work
with us and guide the books using a model that we developed for the series.
We discuss the origin and evolution of SHAR in volume 50 of the series,
Perspectives in Auditory Research (Fay and Popper 2014 ), so we won’t repeat that
here. We’ll only say that the motivation to continue beyond volume 8 was the very
positive responses we got to the fi rst volumes from colleagues and friends, our
growing understanding of the fi eld, and the variety of topics open to review.
Much to our delight, SHAR has grown, with volume 51 having come out in 2014
and perhaps 10–15 volumes at various stages. In fall of 2012 we broached the idea
of stopping the series, but Springer “rebelled” and said it has to go on; we assume
they make some money from the series. So we have designated two young colleagues, Allison Coffi n and Joseph Sisneros, as “heirs apparent,” but you won’t see
them editing SHAR for a while because we enjoy the volumes so much. We will add
A.N. Popper and R.R. Fay
that we really moved sensory biology forward with this meeting. But, the thing that
every participant remembers in greatest detail was the FOOD!!!
This happened because we were given some private funding for the meeting and
we decided that one of the best ways to foster interactions was to keep everyone
together during lunch (rather than going to other sites). So, on Bill Tavolga’s suggestion, we hired a local French chef, Alain Mons, to do lunch, breaks and the fi nal
banquet. We planned lunch every day, with only a light lunch on Thursday because
participants had the afternoon off to relax. Well, each lunch was a culinary masterpiece, and the breaks were the best we have ever experienced (even to now!). And
we accomplished our goal—everyone stayed around for long lunch breaks, and
there were two hours of lively and exciting discussion each day in the company of
brilliant food. And, on Thursday, when we fi gured people would “eat and run,” the
sandwiches were extraordinary and no one left.
The banquet was another experience! The food, as expected, was fantastic. But
what we remember most vividly, during the closing “thank you’s” for the meeting,
the organizers got polite applause and some nice words were said about our organization skills. But, when Chef Mons was introduced, he got a fi ve-minute standing
ovation!!!
6 SHAR
One day, we were sitting around Dick’s house in Falmouth, MA, and got into a
conversation about various books in the fi eld of auditory neuroscience. One thing
led to another, and for some reason, we came up with the idea of editing a series of
books on various aspects of hearing. We quickly came up with the idea for eight
books and fi gured that would pretty much cover the fi eld. We broached this idea
with Dr. William Curtis, our Springer editor at that time (now president of Springer
in the USA) and he immediately “bought” the idea and gave us considerable encouragement and support. We decided to start with just two books, one on anatomy and
one on physiology. We realized that there are many areas in which neither of us is
expert or even knew the major “players,” so we decided to invite coeditors to work
with us and guide the books using a model that we developed for the series.
We discuss the origin and evolution of SHAR in volume 50 of the series,
Perspectives in Auditory Research (Fay and Popper 2014 ), so we won’t repeat that
here. We’ll only say that the motivation to continue beyond volume 8 was the very
positive responses we got to the fi rst volumes from colleagues and friends, our
growing understanding of the fi eld, and the variety of topics open to review.
Much to our delight, SHAR has grown, with volume 51 having come out in 2014
and perhaps 10–15 volumes at various stages. In fall of 2012 we broached the idea
of stopping the series, but Springer “rebelled” and said it has to go on; we assume
they make some money from the series. So we have designated two young colleagues, Allison Coffi n and Joseph Sisneros, as “heirs apparent,” but you won’t see
them editing SHAR for a while because we enjoy the volumes so much. We will add
A.N. Popper and R.R. Fay