Dr. Doyuen Ko is a Professor at Belmont University’s Mike Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business, instructing Audio Engineering Technology. An award-winning sound engineer, researcher, and educator specializing in audio engineering, acoustics, and aural heritage preservation. A five-time Juno Award nominee and winner, and MidSouth EMMY Award nominee, Dr. Ko holds a Ph.D. and M.Mus. from McGill University and previously worked as a sound designer for the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS). His research explores virtual acoustics, spatial sound, and music perception, with publications and presentations at IEEE, ASA, and AES. In 2019, he received a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to advance global efforts to preserve aural heritage sites.
His Faculty Fellow grant enables Dr. Ko to create maps of significant historically endangered churches that are in decline. For his research, he is visiting six churches throughout the southeast. By entering the space and creating a digital aural footprint, he can quantify the resonance and aural quality of that space. Research includes the architecture of the room, the materials used to create the room, the size, and the foundation. Dr. Ko is also capturing these sounds of the sacred spaces and preserving them digitally for use in virtual reality settings and other experiences, such as recording technology. He also plans to produce materials around this, sharing the history of the churches via video storytelling.
