Mystic Aquarium & Institute for Exploration

FETCHLAB

Peter is a Navy veteran and retired Navy Lieutenant Commander. He began working with marine animals while in the Navy by directing the Navy Marine Mammal Technology Program at the Naval Undersea Systems Center. After eleven years he became a Commissioned Limited Duty Officer and Naval Oceanography Officer specializing in marine mammal bioacoustic research.  During his final ten years he worked at the Naval Underwater SystemsCenter in New London, Connecticut and at Mystic Aquarium where he was Chief Scientist for the Navy Marine Mammal Technology Research Program at NUSC and eventually, Head Trainer at Mystic Aquarium.  He received a presidential award from president Busch Sr. for his pioneering work in dolphin bioacoustic research as it related to transducers and fetal ultrasound and was inducted into the Order of the Decibel.

Peter is now the Director and Principal Investigator of the FETCHLAB (Facility for Education on and Testing of Canine Hearing and Laboratory for Animal Bioacoustics) and an Assistant Professor in the Audiology section of the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders in the College of Allied Health Sciences at the University of Cincinnati.

He is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Communications Science Department neuroaudiology laboratory at the University of Connecticut and adjunct to the Ocean Engineering Department of the University of Rhode Island. He specializes in neuroaudiology and electrophysiology.

Peter’s specialty regards integrated research into marine mammal, exotic and companion animal bioacoustic, central auditory models related to human neuroaudiology and central auditory processing systems.  He is also a collaborator in the study of animal vocalizations related to stress using advanced neural computer model techniques under the Dolittle Project grant from the National Science Foundation. 

Peter has been involved with human neuroaudiology research for 8 years and animal/marine mammal bioacoustic research and training for 30 years.  Peter’s degrees are in Physics, Oceanography, physical acoustics and animal Bioacoustics (with a minor in speech and hearing sciences) with a medical elective in otolaryngology and head and neck anatomy and an elective in mechanical engineering.  He received his degrees from the University of Hawaii, and the University of Connecticut and did his medical elective at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.