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So u nd
Perspectives
Ask an Acoustician:
Brigitte Schulte-For-tkamp
Brigitte Schulte-Fortkamp Nleet Brigitte Schulte-Fortzkamp
Addms: Dr. Brigitte Schulte-Fortkamp is a professor of psy-
. . . choacoustics and noise effects at the Institute of Fluid
Institute of Fluid Mechanics M h _ d E _ _ A t_ T hn_ h
and Engimmng Acousfics ec anics an _ ngineering cous ics, ec isc e
Te dmk 31 Univermy of Berlin Universitat Berlin, Germany. She was previously a
10623 Berlin visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of
Germany Technology, Cambridge; Osaka University, Iapan;
and the Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris.
E"“"'l-' She has been a member of the Acoustical Society of
b-5d‘“1‘5’f°"k31'“P@*“’b“““-d5 America (ASA) for years, serving as vice president
, from 2011 to 2012. She has also been a Fellow of the
Society since 2002 and has served as an associate edi-
Mich“-1 L Du“ tor on The Ioumal of the Acoustical Society of America. She began co-organizing
Add,eSs__ one of the ASA’s most popular events, the “ASA School,” with Dr. Iudy Dubno in
Depanmem of Psychology 2012. She is currently serving as vice president of the European Acoustics Associa-
Umversky at Buffalo tion and is also a member of the board of the German Acoustical Society.
5”“ U“lV“'5“Y “NEW Y°"k Brigitte recently answered a series of questions designed to help us get to know
375 Pail‘ H3“ more about her and her field. Her participation in this special issue of Acoustics To-
B“ff31°- New Y°‘k 14250 day featuring accomplished women is no accident. Brigitte is an impressive scholar
USA and educator, and we can all learn from her story.
Email:
mdem@b“ffa1o_ed“ A Conversation with Brigitte Schulce-Fartkamp,
in Her Words
Tell us xbautyaur work.
I like soundscapes. Soundscape got its introduction into the field of noise research
and noise abatement about 20 years ago as a paradigm shift, defining an acoustic
environment “as perceived or experienced and/or understood by people, in con-
text” (I.nternational Organization for Standardization [ISO], 2014). This clearly
means to first consider human perception and then turn to physical measurement
when an acoustical environment is evaluated. More precisely, I enjoy getting peo-
ple involved in noise issues in order to address their own interests in noise man-
agement, like people did in the Berlin project “Nauener Platz” when they asked for
bird and water sounds to be protected against road traffic noise (Schulte-Fortka.mp
and Kang, 2013). I have been involved in many projects with regard to noise man-
agement, but the best projects were those that gave people the chance to access
topics that concerned them about noise. For decades, noise was considered a bur-
den for people, but it was always very challenging to directly involve people in
solutions to deal with this noise. Although the 2002 Environmental Noise Direc-
tive (acousticstodayorg/directive-en) focused on the future of noise in Europe, for
the first time it provided the chance for soundscape measurements to be discussed
and proposed for standardization on an international platform (Schulte-Fortka.mp
and Dubois, 2006). I was then nominated as one of the German representatives to
a working group seeking to develop the ISO standard on soundscapes. We began
7|: 1 AI:uuII:lr:I Tbdey 1 mi 2013 | volume 14, issue 3 ©2013 Acomrxcul sacxery ofAmerxcu. All rights reserved.