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been making an effort to (re)introduce ASA to some of these communities through the organization of special sessions and extending speaking invitations to prominent researchers.
The breadth of interests in the TCPA community makes it hard to hold out one or two examples of recent work that have been especially impactful. Making this doubly difficult is that particularly important work that falls squarely under the umbrella of physical acoustics is sometimes published in well-respected journals that are not focused on acous- tics. An example is a paper that was published in 2013 by a team led by Albert Migliori that used acoustic resonances of a YBCO superconductor sample measured in the vicinity of the superconducting transition (Shekhter, 2013). A care- ful analysis of the temperature dependence of the resonance shifts helped provide insight into an important fundamental question in superconductor physics. Acoustics was the tool that could tease out this insight when other methods could not.
Another recent paper explained the mechanism by which hurricanes generate infrasound. A proper understanding required a detailed theoretical analysis of the non-linear interaction between ocean surface waves and coupling to the atmosphere. The predicted source region of the hurri- cane was not the eye but south of the eye (in the northern hemisphere). This prediction was verified using arrays of infrasound sensors placed on the eastern seaboard during hurricane Igor in 2010. This work was published by a team led by Roger Waxler (Blom et al., 2014). Coincidently, Roger Waxler has coauthored an article with Carrick Talmadge on infrasound associated with tornadoes in this issue of Acous- tics Today (see page 43).
A rapidly emerging and exciting field is acoustofluidics. Ul- trasonics can be used to manipulate flow, particle separa- tion, cell, and droplet manipulation in microfluidic systems. Such capabilities are critical for the development of “lab on a chip” technologies, which could revolutionize diagnostics in medicine. Acoustics in tiny fluid channels is a relatively novel environment. While much progress has been made in the past decade, much remains to be done. Acoustical issues that come to the forefront (and perhaps leveraged) in these systems are viscous effects, streaming, non-linear effects, and novel transduction design. Undoubtedly, acoustofluid- ics will continue to be an exciting field to watch in the com- ing decade (Huang, 2014; Hahn, 2015).
The TC also plays an integral role in the organization of the Physical Acoustics Summer School (PASS). This is a week-
long, intensive summer experience that brings together about 50 graduate students, mid-career professionals, and senior lecturers in a secluded environment to develop both an appreciation for the breadth of the field and to form per- sonal relationships across generations of practitioners (see information about PASS on page 59 of this issue of Acoustics Today). PASS has been offered every other year for the past 25 years, and PASS 2016 planning is well underway. PASS has long depended on the TCPA community as a source for participants, from an early graduate student to a senior Fel- low in the ASA with hundreds of publications.
One focus over the past few years has been to improve the communication tools for the TCPA community. As with all TCs, we often come up with fantastic ideas in our bi-annual open meetings, but these often die on the vine in the inter- vening six months. We hope that providing mechanisms for keeping the conversations going will help turn more of these ideas into accomplishments. Some examples of this effort are a complete overhaul of the TCPA website a few years ago (http://tcpaasa.org) and the establishment of a Twitter feed (follow us at https://twitter.com/asacousticspatc). We have also been involved in modernizing email list management, helping ASA with a pilot project to live stream sessions from meetings to those who cannot physically attend and to cre- ate on-line document sharing. All TCs in the ASA have an interest in recruiting and keeping up-and-coming talent. It is our hope that these technologies will help keep the lines of communication open during that dynamic early career phase.
Finally, I describe the culture of the TCPA, and by exten- sion, the ASA as a whole. Many of us have experience with other societies and professional organizations, likely ones more targeted to our specific research areas. And, yet, many of us keep coming back, twice a year, to see our friends and colleagues and hear what they have been working on. One of the reasons ASA fosters such loyalty is the welcoming and supportive culture. This is apparent during TCPA Open Meetings and sessions. Graduate students are supported, not skewered, when they make a mistake in a talk. Disagree- ments on a particular bit of science or course of action are handled with respect and a desire to understand the point of view of the other, sharing a laugh over a beer is as important as sharing a new result. These relationships lead to partner- ships, partnerships lead to more impactful results, and im- pactful results push the field forward.
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