Audio Foundation Awards 14 Scholarships to Future Engineers

Fourteen talented students just received a major boost toward their dreams of shaping the future of sound. The Audio Engineering Society Educational Foundation announced its scholarship recipients for the 2026/2027 academic year, recognizing exceptional talent in audio engineering, acoustics, recording, and music production.

The awards span universities across North America and beyond, from MIT to Mexico's Tecnológico de Monterrey. Each scholarship celebrates both academic excellence and creative vision in an industry that powers everything from concert halls to recording studios.

Several awards honor industry pioneers while supporting specific fields. The Nancy Flannery Memorial Scholarship, sponsored by WSDG, went to Yiping Han at the University of York for her graduate studies in architectural acoustics. The Genelec Mike Chafee Pioneering Scholarship supported Nancy Rico-Mineros at Stanford University, continuing the foundation's commitment to women in audio education.

Other recipients demonstrated remarkable specialization in their fields. Kyosuke Sato from Tokyo University of the Arts received the John Eargle Award for excellence in both technology and music. Alexander Akstens earned the Olive Award for Excellence in Audio for his scientific research at Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics.

The foundation also awarded scholarships to undergraduate students completing their final years. Armando Buendia at Tecnológico de Monterrey received the Mary Lea Simpson Memorial Scholarship, while Nathaniel Dickson at Belmont University earned support through the William "Bil" Thomas VornDick Memorial Scholarship for students in Tennessee.

The Ripple Effect

Since its establishment in 1984, the AES Educational Foundation has supported hundreds of students who have gone on to shape the professional audio industry. These graduates work behind the scenes on the music we stream, the movies we watch, and the live events we attend.

"These students represent the future of our industry," said Jim Anderson, President of the AES Educational Foundation. The awards are made possible through contributions from industry partners like EAW, Eventide, and Genelec, along with memorial endowments and individual donors who believe in nurturing the next generation of audio professionals.

The fourteen recipients join a growing network of audio engineers and innovators who will shape how we experience sound for decades to come.