Albert Feng: father, friend, scientist, innovator (1944-2021)

J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol. 2023 Jan;209(1):7-10. doi: 10.1007/s00359-022-01568-9. Epub 2022 Oct 7.

Abstract

Albert S.-H. Feng was an outstanding family man and brilliant scientist, with a creative mind, a gift for dealing with people of all types, and a warm, personable demeanor. He was blessed with many talents, making him a sought-after colleague and collaborator. His love for people and travel took him to many destinations around the world where he studied the neuroethology of frog and bat communication both in the field and in the lab. He has made many fundamental contributions to our understanding of the vertebrate auditory system. These include characterizing the "delay-tuned" neurons in the bat midbrain underlying target detection, and in discovering several terrestrial amphibians in which the upper limit of hearing extends well into the ultrasonic range, forever changing our long-held perception of frogs as "low-frequency animals".

Keywords: Animal communication; Bat echolocation; Cornell University; Frog auditory system; University of Illinois.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Chiroptera* / physiology
  • Echolocation* / physiology
  • Fathers
  • Friends
  • Hearing / physiology
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Mesencephalon