Rate My Professor James Dewey

James Dewey, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery in the USC Caruso Department of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery at the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, where he also directs the Dewey Lab as Principal Investigator. He earned his PhD in Communication Sciences and Disorders from Northwestern University, conducting research under Dr. Sumitrajit Dhar on characterizing otoacoustic emissions in humans. Subsequently, Dewey pursued postdoctoral training with Dr. John Oghalai, initially at Stanford University and later at USC, specializing in optical methods to examine intracochlear vibrations in animal models. During his Stanford postdoc, he received the Dean's Postdoctoral Fellowship. His academic journey is influenced by a longstanding interest in sound and perception, complemented by experience as a teacher's aide at the Hearing and Speech Center of Northern California, assisting children with hearing and speech impairments.

The Dewey Lab investigates the peripheral mechanical processes essential to normal hearing and their disruption in hearing loss, utilizing mouse models to explore sound-induced vibrations in the cochlear spiral, amplification by sensory outer hair cells, and the resulting otoacoustic emissions. Employing optical coherence tomography, the lab non-invasively images cochlear structures and quantifies vibrations in live animals, providing unprecedented insights into inner ear dynamics. In February 2024, Dewey was awarded the first major five-year R01 grant from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) at the National Institutes of Health to advance studies on mammalian hearing mechanisms, particularly the mechanical amplification function of outer hair cells, which are implicated in common forms of hearing loss such as age-related conditions. Collaborating with the Auditory Physics Group, including researchers Alessandro Altoè and Christopher Shera, Dewey contributed to a novel model of outer hair cell mechanical enhancement, challenging prior paradigms and fostering new research directions. This work lays critical groundwork for diagnostic improvements and potential therapies targeting non-regenerating outer hair cells.