Kerstin Persson Waye

Kerstin Persson Waye has a background in Public Health and Environmental Protection, with a particular interest in the area of low-frequency noise. She was Associate Professor at the Department of Acoustics at Aalborg University in Denmark before her appointment at the University of Gothenburg, where she specializes in noise research. She is currently a member of the Guideline Development Group (GOG) for the World Health Organization’s Community Noise Guidelines for the European Region, and she is also leading an EU evaluation of human response to vibration from freight trains. The latter group is specifically studying the impacts on sleep due to vibration and low-frequency noise from freight trains.

Dr. Persson Waye has been granted funds for research on wind turbine noise since 1995. Early research included experimental evaluations of the pleasant and unpleasant sound characteristics of wind turbine noise, while later research evaluated annoyance of wind turbine noise in a way that took into account visual, attitudinal, and sociological factors. Other research has focused on low-frequency noise in the general and occupational environments with the aim of assessing prevalence of noise disturbance, dose-response relationships, effects on sleep disturbance, and impacts on work performance.

During her PhD studies, Dr. Persson Waye was engaged by the Swedish National Board on Health and Welfare to write a review of low-frequency noise, infrasound, vibrations, and their effects on human health. As a member of the network on occupational noise, she was approached again by the Swedish National Board to write a review of occupational noise and its effects on humans, which formed the basis for a review of Swedish guidelines on occupational noise. She also wrote the chapter “Effects of low frequency noise and vibrations: Environmental and occupational perspectives” for the Encyclopedia of Environmental Health 2011.

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