How to resolve AdBlock issue? Genelec 2025 AES Foundation Scholarship Recipients
Genelec Inc. has announced the recipients of its annual scholarships awarded in association with the Audio Engineering Society Educational Foundation (AESEF). Reaffirming the company’s commitment to audio education, Genelec Inc. congratulates this year’s recipients (both graduate students): Franco Galetto (Middle Tennessee State University, pictured left) has received a grant as beneficiary of the Genelec Dr. Ilpo Martikainen Audio Visionary Scholarship; and Nancy Rico-Mineros (Stanford University Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics [CCRMA], pictured right) has been named the recipient of the Genelec Mike Chafee Audio Pioneering Scholarship.
The Genelec Dr. Ilpo Martikainen Audio Visionary Scholarship was established in 2018 in honor of Genelec’s late founder Dr. Ilpo Martikainen. For many years Dr. Martikainen was involved in the Audio Engineering Society, including being presented with the AES Fellowship Award for significant contributions in the field of loudspeaker development in 1993, and in 2015 delivering the Richard C. Heyser Memorial Lecture at the 138th AES International Convention in Warsaw, Poland.
This year’s Martikainen Scholarship recipient, Franco Galetto, a graduate student at Middle Tennessee State University, is entering the final year of his MFA program, where he will be working on his thesis, which consists of developing a comprehensive workflow for mixing music in Dolby Atmos to deepen his own expertise and offer fellow engineers a practical guide. He remarks, “Over the past years of my graduate studies, I have developed a growing passion for all aspects of immersive audio with the explicit goal of building a career around mixing music and crafting engaging listening experiences. This coming academic year, I plan to research and organize some of the techniques and workflows employed by today’s professionals, integrate my experiments, and package everything into an accessible resource that helps audio engineers get started with Dolby Atmos mixing. As technology and best practices evolve, I plan to keep this guide up-to-date, ensuring it remains a curated, reliable reference for immersive music production. Thanks to MTSU’s state-of-the-art facilities and expert faculty, I am gaining a solid foundation in audio and immersive technologies, which I consider essential for my professional goals. I am excited to push the boundaries of this field, discover new techniques as the technology evolves, and share those insights so that more listeners and engineers can experience music in this format. I thank the AESEF for helping make my work possible.”
The Genelec Mike Chafee Audio Pioneering Scholarship was established to promote the advancement of women in the audio industry while paying tribute to noted long-time Genelec manufacturer’s representative, audiophile, sound designer, acoustician, audio evangelist and supporter of women in audio, Michael Chafee. The scholarship is offered annually to U.S. female graduate students in the field of audio engineering who are members of the Audio Engineering Society.
Chafee Scholarship recipient Nancy Rico-Mineros is a graduate student in audio engineering at Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics [CCRMA], where she is currently developing a women-led audio group, while helping the development of a documentary on the history of CCRMA. She remarks, “My graduate studies have shaped me while also challenging my perception of sound and exploring where we go moving toward the future. I know I’ll graduate to become a better audio engineer, but I’ll also graduate knowing that I will be an effective audio educator. I am inspired by the engineers who have taken the time to become educators and who have taught me. I do believe that it is my goal to learn from those before me in order to be able to educate those who will come after me, which is why I firmly believe in the archival and preservation of the history of our field. Further, much of my research interest is highlighting marginalized communities within audio. This has led me to my involvement with non-profits such as We Are Moving The Needle and She Is The Music. I thank the AESEF for supporting me in the trajectory that I am on!”