The Sustainable Sound Futures CDT Masterclass series will feature leading researchers from academia and industry. This is an opportunity for our PhD students to hear directly from the leaders in their field across a wide range of sound-related topics including bioacoustics, psychoacoustics, aeroacoustics, building acoustics and AI for sound.
Each Masterclass will consist of a presentation followed by Q&A so this is a fantastic chance for our students to engage in a rewarding interactive discussion to seek insight into how to deliver a successful advancement in knowledge. Our students come from a diverse background in science & technology – acoustics, biology, physics, computer science and software engineering, so the Masterclass will be pitched at a level accessible to post-graduate scientific researchers and the discussion will benefit from their diverse backgrounds and outlooks.
The Masterclasses will be online and open to anyone to join for free – please register for the event and you will receive the joining details.
Sustainable Sound Futures CDT Masterclass with Professor Marc Holderied
Thursday 22 October 2026 at 13:00-14:00
Online event – please register via this link to receive the joining details.
Reverse engineering a natural sound absorber metamaterial
Providing healthy living and working environments in our ever-noisier world necessitates increasing use of noise control technology. Acoustic metamaterials can act as ultrathin subwavelength noise control methods, allowing sound insulation to be thinner and lighter than ever before.
Professor Holderied will present his team’s discovery of a natural acoustic metamaterial and show their ongoing work towards bioinspired metamaterial absorbers. Their bioinspiration arises from the 65-million-year acoustic arms race between echolocating bats and their moth prey, which has turned the wing scales of moths into an omnidirectional, ultrathin (1/100 λ) and broadband absorber of ultrasound that provides acoustic camouflage against bats. Their 2026 university spinout, Attacus Acoustics, develops bioinspired novel broadband sound absorbers and barriers that are substantially thinner and lighter than available solutions – using clues from nature to inform the design of the next wave of advanced noise control.
Professor Marc Holderied (University of Bristol)
As a sensory ecologist and bioacoustician with strong links to bio-inspired engineering, Professor Holderied’s research expertise is in the emerging fields of acoustic camouflage and biosonar navigation with a continued passion for acoustic arms races and wildlife acoustics.
Posted on 25th September 2026 in Events
