Page 11 - Winter 2010

Fig. 1. Percentages of ASA members in physical sciences and life sciences.
that I should bring up. The first is gender diversity and the second is racial diversity. In my opinion and experience, the ASA is making good progress on both fronts. In the past decade, three women (Patricia Kuhl, Kathryn Harris, and Ilene Busch-Vishniac) were elected President and three women were elected Vice President (Janet Weisenberger, Donna Neff and Diane Kewley-Port). The make up of the Executive Council in the past decade has always included a good representation of women. Of the present six Executive Council elective positions, two are held by women. We also have a vibrant Women in Acoustics Committee. In the area of unrepresentated minorities, progress is slower but there is a committed ad hoc committee addressing this area. The election of James West, an African-American, as President for 1998-99 and myself, an Asian-American, is a reflection of progress in this area. James West was also awarded the prestigious Gold Medal in 2006. I was awarded the Animal Bioacoustics Silver Medal in 1998. Lilly Wang, an Asian- American, was awarded the R. Bruce Lindsay Award in 2005, Purnima Ratilal, an Asian-American in 2006, and Tyrone Porter, an African-American, in 2008. Again a reflection of how our society judges people by their accomplishments rather than by any other standards.
My main motivation for writing this article is to share with both those not in the ASA and with members who are not as aware as they should be about how diverse a professional and scientific society we are. The scope and depth of science represented by the members of our soci- ety are indeed broad and deep and provide a richness from which we can all profit and enjoy. My second motivation is to encourage all of us to think in terms of cross-discipline collaborations and approaches where the inherent strength of our membership can be realized. I understand that many problems and projects do not lend themselves to a cross-discipline approach, but when those that do appear, we should be eager to pounce on them. Words like bioacoustics, biomimeics, biomechanical, and so on have popped up in our lexicon during recent decades, reflecting the thrust by some toward a more integrated and collabo- rative approach to some fields of science. We should be a part of this general thrust. Finally, with acoustics as our common field, I encourage all members to devote some time during each meeting to go to see what the other folks are doing. Who knows, you may be pleasantly surprised by the quality of science done in the different disciplines and perhaps such experiences may stimulate new ideas to pop into your minds.
President’s Perspective 7