Michael Gerzon

Michael A. Gerzon ( born December 4, 1945 in Birmingham, † 6 May 1996) was a British mathematician and audio expert. He is known among other things, the development of Ambisonics, a method for recording and reproducing a sound field.

Gerzon studied mathematics at Oxford University, received the 1967 MA and studied as a postgraduate axiomatic quantum physics. He was also interested in music, poetry, sense perception and information theory. He was fascinated by the sound recording and made many of his own recordings, some of which were released on LP or CD. Among other things, he took on On A Friday, a predecessor band Radiohead. He was a critic of quadraphonic systems of the 70s and developed with on Ambisonics, a surround sound system. Gerzon was a member of the Audio Engineering Society, in 1978 appointed him to the AES Fellow and honored him in 1991 with the AES Gold Medal. He died a few days before the 100th AES Convention in Copenhagen, where he was to hold three lectures on an asthma attack.