Page 12 - Spring 2015

Jerry H. Ginsberg
Postal:
School of Mechanical Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, Georgia 30326 USA
Email:
jerry.ginsberg@me.gatech.edu
Peter H Rogers
Postal:
School of Mechanical Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, Georgia 30326 USA
Email:
peter.rogers@gatech.edu
The Story of Allan D. Pierce
Figure 1. Allan Pierce in 2001 in his office at Boston University.
Is anyone now active in the Acoustical Society more widely recognized than Allan Pierce (Figure 1)? A different way of posing this question is to ask if there is any facet of the Society in which he has not been active? Yet another way of asking this question is to wonder if anyone is unfamil- iar with some aspect of Allan’s contributions to research and education in acoustics? We have been honored to know him for 35 years and have been in awe all this time with the breadth and depth of his knowledge. An anecdote com- ing from the era when we were colleagues at Georgia Tech shows that we are not alone in this regard. One year, we were on the examining committee for the PhD qualifying exam for acoustics. One student did exceptionally well during the oral portion of the exam. As he had also done well on the writ-
Allan D. Pierce :
A Celebration of a Career in Acoustics in Commemoration of His Retirement as editor-in- Chief of the Acoustical society of America
ten exam, we decided to probe a little more deeply. Allan asked him to name the most famous acoustician ever. Anyone who knows Allan knows that what he was looking for was an indication that the student was aware of the history of acous- tics and that the answer that would most satisfy him would be ... Rayleigh. If the student knew Rayleigh's full name and title, that would be even better. On being asked this question, the student's visage changed. One could see his eyes blinking and rolling in panic. After thinking in silence for approximately 30 seconds, the student came up with a reply that was not what Allan expected, but he was pre- pared to accept. The student replied "You!"
10 | Acoustics Today | Spring 2015 , volume 11, issue 2 ©2015 Acoustical Society of America. All rights reserved.