Darlene R. Ketten, Ph. D. - Senior Scientist / CSI Facility Director

Darlene Ketten Shark Scan Field Dissection Minke Whale Scan Ear Extraction Turtle Dissection

Darlene R. Ketten, Ph. D.
Senior Scientist
Office Phone: +1 508 289 2731
Email: dketten [at] whoi [dot] edu

Mailing Address:
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Biology Department
Marine Research Facility, MS #50
Woods Hole, MA 02543 USA

Education:
B. A., Washington University, 1971, Biology and French
M. S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1979, Biological Oceanography
Ph. D., The Johns Hopkins University, 1984, Neuroethology and Experimental Radiology

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Facility Role(s):
Facility Director

Biographical:

Darlene Ketten is a marine biologist and neuroanatomist specializing in underwater hearing and mechanisms of hearing loss. She received a B.A./B.S. from Washington University (Biology and French), M.S. from Massachusetts Institute Technology. (Earth and Planetary Sciences/Biological Oceanography), and Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions (jointly awarded in Neuroanatomy, Behavioral Ecology, and Experimental Radiology). She currently holds joint appointments as a Professor of Imaging and Applied Physics at Curtin University, Scientist emeritus at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and Assistant Clinical Professor at Harvard Medical School. She is the Chief Scientist and Director of the WHOI Computerized Scanning and Imaging Facility.

Dr. Ketten has over twenty-five years’ experience in high resolution radiology, auditory physiology, and head and neck pathology. She has published over 100 peer reviewed articles and case studies as well as specialist reviews and chapters on imaging, diagnostics of auditory system pathology, and hearing mechanisms. Her research comprises microscopic to gross imaging techniques for both humans and marine organisms, including whales, seals and sea lions, fishes, and sea turtles and focuses on modeling of hearing and mechanisms of hearing loss, with an emphasis on determining underwater hearing abilities of marine mammals and imaging of head and neck trauma and disease.

She completed with certificate medical specialty accreditation courses at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) in Neuroradiology, Veterinary Pathology, and Forensic Pathology and is a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), a designated subject matter expert in Bioacoustics for ASA, a Senior Fellow of the National Institutes of Health (NIH/NIDCD), and a Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She is a full member of the Radiology Society of North America (RSNA), the European Radiology Society, the Society for Marine Mammalogy, the Explorer’s Club, the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM/UK), and the American Military Surgeons of the United States (AMSUS). She recently received Fellowships from the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg Institute for Advanced Study and the Western Australia Premier’s Fellowship Program.

Dr. Ketten is an active member of International and US Federal advisory boards and panels on hearing, bioacoustics, acoustic trauma, and marine mammal regulatory guidelines. She has been a voting member and specialty panelist for the National Institutes of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIH/NIDCD), the National Academy of Sciences, the Marine Mammal Commission, NATO, NOAA, CHABA, NIH, SACLANT, CDC, the European Union Polar Research Policy Board, the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate, and the Acoustical Society of America.