The Thomas F. Campbell Callier Prize in Communication Disorders recognizes individuals from around the world for their leadership in fostering scientific advances and significant developments in the diagnosis and treatment of communication disorders.
The biennial award rotates between the fields of audiology and speech-language pathology and includes a $10,000 prize. The recipient receives the award at the Callier Cares Luncheon sponsored by the Foundation for the Callier Center. The recipient also presents at a special one-day Campbell Callier Prize Conference, part of the Bruton Conference Series which is made possible through a generous gift from the David J. Bruton Jr. Charitable Trust.
2026 Callier Prize Recipient
2026 Recipient
Dr. Richard J. Salvi
Dr. Richard Salvi is internationally recognized for his pioneering contributions to auditory neuroscience. An associate professor at UT Dallas from 1980 to 1987, Salvi reshaped scientific understanding of tinnitus, hyperacusis and noise‑induced hearing loss. In the 1990s, he challenged the belief that tinnitus originated only in the inner ear. His innovative neuroimaging research demonstrated that changes in neural activity within the auditory cortex — and in brain regions tied to emotion and memory — play a central role in tinnitus perception. This insight transformed approaches to studying and treating the condition.
Now a research professor at the University of Central Florida, Salvi has also made significant advances in understanding hyperacusis. His work showed how reduced input from the inner ear can cause the brain to increase its internal “volume control,” leading to heightened sound sensitivity. His findings continue to inform treatment strategies for individuals with autism, fibromyalgia, migraine and other conditions marked by auditory hypersensitivity.
Salvi has published some 600 scientific papers and has served on numerous editorial boards and grant review panels. During his time at UT Dallas and the Callier Center, he received the American Auditory Society’s Outstanding Paper of the Year Award for his work on sensorineural hearing loss.
He spent 35 years directing the Center for Hearing and Deafness at the University at Buffalo, where he also helped establish a tinnitus treatment program and support group. Salvi holds a PhD in experimental psychology from Syracuse University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in auditory neuroscience at SUNY Upstate Medical University.
2024 Callier Prize Recipient
2024 Recipient
Dr. Rebecca J. Landa, PhD, CCC-SLP, BCS-CL
Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Autism Services, Science, and Innovation
Vice President, Kennedy Krieger Institute
Dr. Landa is the founder and executive director of the Center for Autism Services, Science, and Innovation (previously known as CARD) at Kennedy Krieger Institute, where she is vice president. She is Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Landa obtained her doctorate from the University of Washington. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Psychiatric Genetics at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Dr. Landa has practiced clinically in public schools, university clinics and hospital settings. She consults with schools, universities, and families internationally to establish state-of-the-science educational and speech-language pathology programming for children with, or at risk for, communication disorders, including autism spectrum disorders. Dr. Landa takes a translational science and public health approach in her measure development, early detection, developmental science, intervention science, and implementation science research. She participates in policy-related efforts to improve health care and education for children with, or at risk for, communication disorders. She has received numerous prestigious awards, such as ASHA Honors of the Association and INSAR Fellow. Through her translational science public health initiative, Bundle of Learning®, Dr. Landa provides strategically designed, science-informed children’s books and story-related materials to improve young children’s language, emergent literacy, social, and play development and adults’ use of potent language stimulation strategies.
2022 Callier Prize Recipient
2022 Recipient
Dr. Karl R. White, PhD
Director, National Center for Hearing Assessment and Management;
Emma Eccles Jones Endowed Chair in Early Childhood Education,
Professor of Psychology, Utah State University
Dr. White the Emma Eccles Jones Endowed Chair in Early Childhood Education, a Professor in the Department of Psychology, and the founding Director of the National Center for Hearing Assessment and Management (NCHAM). Projects currently underway at NCHAM are focused on developing more effective hearing screening and intervention programs for infants and young children through research, improving public health information systems, training and technical assistance, and information dissemination. Dr. White’s work has been recognized with awards from many organizations, including the Deafness Research Foundation, the American Association for Speech Language and Hearing, and the Swedish Society of Medicine. He also serves on many national and international advisory groups for organizations such as the United States Department of Health and Human Services, the World Health Organization, the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, March of Dimes, the American College of Medical Genetics and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
2019 Callier Prize Recipient
2019 Recipient
Dr. Steven M. Barlow
Corwin Moore Professor
Associate Director: Center for Brain, Biology & Behavior
Department of Special Education & Communication Disorders
Department of Biological Systems Engineering
Director: Communication Neuroscience Laboratories
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Dr. Steven Barlow has a broad background in biology, speech physiology, neuroscience, biomechanics, and bioengineering applied to sensorimotor neurophysiology and plasticity of orofacial systems across the lifespan in health and disease. Dr. Barlow’s work has led to numerous technological innovations (FDA-approved NTrainer, Galileo Somatosensory, TAC-stim, NeoNNS, ForceWIN) to promote translational neurotherapeutics and motor rehabilitation of orofacial systems in premature infants and adults.
2017 Callier Prize Recipient
2017 Recipient
Dr. Sharon G. Kujawa
Director of Audiology Research, Eaton-Peabody Laboratories,
Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary
Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Kujawa studies how aging and noise exposure can impact hearing. Her more recent research on hidden hearing loss has initiated what is widely regarded to be a paradigm shift, shaping the way researchers, clinicians, occupational, military and public health personnel think about and assess noise-induced and age-related hearing loss and inner ear injury. The work could have major implications for federal exposure guidelines designed to protect humans against noise-induced injury.
2015 Callier Prize Recipient
2015 Recipient
Dr. Laurence B. Leonard
Rachel E. Stark Distinguished Professor
Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences
Purdue University
Dr. Leonard’s research is aimed at understanding the nature of specific language impairment in children. Together with his colleagues, Leonard has studied children with specific language impairment who speak such languages as English, Italian, Hebrew, Swedish, Spanish, Cantonese, Finnish, and Hungarian.
2013 Callier Prize Recipient
2013 Recipient
Dr. Harvey Dillon
Director of Research at National Acoustic Laboratories (NAL)
Sydney, Australia
Dr. Dillon has performed research into many aspects of hearing aids. At various times he has also been responsible for the design of hearing aids and for the co-ordination of clinical service provision. Most recently, his research has concerned signal processing schemes for hearing aids, prescription of hearing aids, evaluating the effectiveness of rehabilitation, electrophysiological assessment, auditory processing disorders, and methods for preventing hearing loss.
2011 Callier Prize Recipient
2011 Recipient
Dr. J. Bruce Tomblin
Spriestersbach Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences
University of Iowa
Dr. Tomblin’s research has led to remarkable advances in the epidemiology, etiology, assessment and treatment of children’s language disorders.
2009 Callier Prize Recipient
2009 Recipient
Dr. Hugh J. McDermott
Professor of Auditory Communication and
Signal Processing
The University of Melbourne
Victoria, Australia
Dr. McDermott is recognized as a leading researcher and designer of cochlear implant systems and digital hearing aids. His research has often led to the development of new or improved sound processing schemes for cochlear implants and hearing aids
