A legacy of accoustic innovation

Professor Barry Truax has been teaching acoustic communication at SFU for 40 years. He couldn’t imagine a program of this kind anywhere else. “I’ve travelled to universities throughout the world and have never come across one as innovative and interdisciplinary as SFU,” he says. 

Truax’s partner, Dr. Guenther Krueger, is also no stranger to SFU. As a seasoned health professional, he enrolled in the Masters of Liberal Arts program as a mature student. This experience inspired him to go further and get his PhD, during which he did groundbreaking research on families who have lost a child to SIDS. 

In 2009, they established the Glenfraser Endowment Fund with an initial $25,000 investment that they have since grown to $100,000. It currently funds two student awards in acoustic communication, but their ultimate goal is to ensure the continuity of the World Soundscape Project with an academic appointment when their bequest is realized. 

 “Acoustic communication is just coming into the mainstream as an academic discipline,” says Barry, “and Guenther and I are happy to be able to support students who want to explore this exciting area.”