Page 38 - Spring 2007

8 J. Bransford, A. Brown, and R. Cocking, Eds., How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School (National Academies Press, Washington, DC, 2000).
9 M. Donovan, and J. Bransford, eds., How Students Learn. (National Academies Press, Washington, DC, 2005).
10 J. Lucena, “Making women and minorities in science and engi- neering for national purposes in the United States,” J. Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering 6(1), 1–31 (2000).
11 J. Swearengen, S. Barnes, S. Coe, C. Reinhardt, and K. Subramanian,
“Globalization and the undergraduate manufacturing engineering
curriculum,” J. Engineering Education 91(2), 255–261 (2002).
12 I. Busch-Vishniac and J. Jarosz, “Can Diversity in the Undergraduate Engineering Population be Enhanced through Curricular Change?,” J. Women and Minorities in Science and
Engineering 10(3), 255–281 (2004).
Ilene J. Busch-Vishniac is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland where, from 1998–2003 she served as the sixth dean of the Whiting School of Engineering.
Dr. Busch-Vishniac received her
undergraduate degrees in Physics
and Mathematics from The
University of Rochester, and M.S. and
Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical
Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She worked at Bell Laboratories in the Acoustics Research Department before joining the Mechanical Engineering fac- ulty of The University of Texas in 1981. She remained at The University of Texas until 1998, when she joined Johns Hopkins University as Professor and Dean.
Dr. Busch-Vishniac has received many teaching and research awards, including the Achievement Award of the Society of Women Engineers, the Curtis McGraw Research Award of the American Society for Engineering Education, and the Silver Medal in Engineering Acoustics of the Acoustical Society of America. She has served in various professional organizations including a term as President of the Acoustical Society of America, and a term on the Engineering Deans Council of the American Society of Engineering Education. She has authored roughly 60 techni- cal articles and one book, and holds 9 US patents on electro- mechanical sensors.
Dr. Busch-Vishniac is married to astrophysicist Ethan Vishniac. They have two children, Cady and Miriam. Two shaggy dogs complete the domestic picture.
James E. West is currently a Research Professor at Johns Hopkins University, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (2002). He was formally a Bell Laboratories Fellow, at Lucent Technologies.
His pioneering research on charge storage and transport in poly- mers (the electrical analogy of a per- manent magnet) led to the develop- ment of electret transducers for sound recording and voice communication. Almost 90% of all microphones built today are based on the principles first published in the early 1960s. This sim- ple but rugged transducer is the heart of most new telephones and can be found in most microphone applica-
tions from toys to professional equipment.
West holds more than 50 U.S. and about 200 foreign
patents on various microphones and techniques for making polymer electrets and transducers. He was inducted into The National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1999 for the invention of the electret microphone.
West is a member of the National Academy of Engineering; an Acoustical Society of America (ASA) Fellow and past President, and past member of ASA’s Executive Council (1998-2001). He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
West is a member of the Board of Directors of The National Inventors Hall of Fame, a member of the National Academy of Engineering Committee on Diversity in the Engineering Workforce, and a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of The International Symposium on Electrets.
West is a recipient of the ASA’s Silver Medal in Engineering Acoustics (1995), and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the New Jersey Institute of Technology (1997). In 2002 he was the Audio Engineering Society Richard C. Heyser Memorial Lecturer. West was awarded the JOHN WILLIAM STRUTT, 3rd Baron of Raleigh 2003 Award, presented by the Mexican Institute of Acoustics, the Acoustical Society of America’s Gold Medal (2006), and an honorary Doctor of Engineering from Michigan State University (2006).
36 Acoustics Today, April 2007