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This is the second issue of Acoustics
Today not to be edited by Dick Stern, who
edited this magazine from its first issue in
October 2005 until his death on June 19,
2013. The Editor-in-Chief is temporarily
doing the job of getting the issues out until
a new Editor is appointed by the Executive
Council. One major driving force during
this interim period has been to get the
issues out on schedule. With some luck,
this October issue will arrive in the mail
before the month is out. Your temporary
editor has been climbing a steep learning
curve and is beginning to realize the magnitude of the logis- tics problems faced by a magazine such as Acoustics Today, where virtually all the content is contributed by volunteers.
The present issue has a variety of articles, some of which arrived fortuitously just in time to be included in the present issue. As it turned out, this issue has more content concerned with education than has been the case for any previous issue, so one might perhaps say it has a focus on acoustics educa- tion. One will find here an article about the “ASA School,” which debuted at the recent meeting of the ASA in Kansas City, and which will resume at the meeting in Providence. The two authors, Brigitte Schulte-Fortkampf and Judy Dubno, give a nice report of what happened at the school in Kansas City, and one will find information here about the next school. Catherine Rogers alerted the Acting Editor to some terrific outreach activities that are being carried out by the Georgia Tech Chapter of the ASA. This resulted in our suc- ceeding to get an article, written by 5 Georgia Tech students, that tells us something about these activities. It is an inspiring article and the accompanying photos give some indication of what a local chapter can do if they are willing to make the effort. Another article relating to acoustics education is the one by Takayuki Arai, which discusses how he uses mechani- cal models of the human vocal tract in teaching students in acoustics and speech science.The article about the Rossing Prize’s first 10 years resulted because of the editor’s feeling that the Prize, while certainly prestigious, nevertheless merited some additional publicizing among the ASA, and also that 10 years is a good time lapse for which to attempt an overview of the award. So, here you will find some details about the extraordinary individual, Tom Rossing, who established the endowment, along with photos of the first ten recipients and with the abstracts of the special lectures they gave at ASA meetings in conjunction with receiving the award.
One of the important frontiers of modern acoustics is
described in the article included here on acoustic tweezers. This percolated up from the Biomedical Acoustics Technical Committee, with Kirk Shung and his col- leagues volunteering to write an article describing the recent progress (and break- throughs!) on this intriguing phenomena. Then, there are two articles dealing with a long term societal problem that has occu- pied the attention of acousticians for many many years – noise! The progress of civiliza- tion continues to present new challenges and puzzles regarding noise. Noise from
wind turbines, especially the infrasound, is a hot topic in the present day and there are conflicting views. In this issue, Paul Schomer, prompted by an article in the July issue by Geof Leventhal, enters the fray with the observation that wind tur- bine infrasound is a different sort of thing than the infrasound that we have around us every day. The arguments will probably continue on in the next issue of this magazine, and persons with good educated opinions are invited to join in the discussion.
In another noise-related article, Robert Schlauch takes on the New York Times (via Tom Rossing and ECHOES) in regard to the hearing loss in teenagers. The NYT article, authored by Jane Brody, the “high priestess of health,” claims that 12 to 15 percent of school-age children have permanent hearing loss. Schlauch believes that these percentage numbers are highly inflated and displays experimental results that support his contention.
You will probably find other material in this issue to be interesting reading. It is especially recommended that you read the piece about our colleague, Blake Wilson, who received a prestigious Lasker Award, the “American Nobel Prize,” for his work on cochlear implants. There is also the article that reminisces about Miguel Junger, who was perhaps the greatest contributor ever to structural acoustics (who also had a son that could write!). There are also excellent accounts (written by Carol Espy-Wilson, Suzanne Boyce, and Bill Strong) in the “Passings Section” of recently deceased mem- bers of the Society (Ken Stevens, Stan Ehrlich, and Mel Clark) whose lives touched many of us.
Acoustics Today believes it has achieved a scoop in this issue (very rare for Acoustics Today) with the news item con- cerning the recruitment of a new Executive Director. Susan Fox will undoubtedly become very well known to many of you in subsequent years, and here, possibly for the first time, you will find an account of her impressive background. Ever upward and onward with the Acoustical Society! Welcome aboard, Susan!
FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Allan D. Pierce
Acoustical Society of America Publications Office 1170 Main Street
PO Box 274
West Barnstable, MA 02668 allanpierce@verizon.net
6 Acoustics Today, October 2013