Acoustical News
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Acoustical News Elaine Moran Acoustical Society of America Melville, New York 11747 more then two billion microphones produced today are based on the prin- ciples developed by West and Sessler. Gerhard M. Sessler is Professor of Electroacoustics at Darmstadt University of Technology in Darmstadt, Germany. He has about 300 publications in scientific and technical journals and in conference proceedings and has served as Associate Editor for Acustica/acta acustica (1993- ) and the IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation since 1998. He is a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America, the Institute of Electrical and Gerhard M. Sessler Electronics Engineers, and the James E. West American Physical Society and mem- 2010 Benjamin Franklin Medal ber of the Audio Engineering Society Inventors Hall of Fame, the NAE Awarded to ASA members and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Committee on Diversity in the Gerhard M. Sessler and James E. Akustik (German Acoustical Society). Engineering Workforce, and the West have been named recipients of He served at Chairman of Deutsche Scientific Advisory Committee of The The Franklin Institute 2010 Benjamin Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Akustik International Symposium on Electrets. Franklin Medal in Electrical (German Acoustical Association) from He is a Fellow of The Acoustical Engineering “for the invention and 1984 to 1990. Society of America, and the Institute of development of the first practical elec- Sessler received the ASA’s Electrical and Electronics Engineers. tret microphone, which can inexpen- Helmholtz-Rayleigh Interdisciplinary He is the recipient of the sively be made small enough to fit into Silver Medal in 1997, the Electrochemical Society of America cellular phones, digital cameras, and Electrochemical Society’s Callinan Callinan Award (1970) the Senior other portable devices.” The award will Award (1970), the Senior Award of the Award (1970) of the IEEE Group on be presented in April 2010. IEEE Group on Audio and Acoustics, the Lewis Howard Latimer Founded in honor of America’s Electroacoustics (1971), and the Light Switch and Socket Award (1989) first scientist, Benjamin Franklin, The Helmholtz Medaille of the Deutsche of the National Patent Law Association, Franklin Institute is one of America’s Gesellschaft für Akustik(1993). He was He received the ASA Silver Medal in oldest and premier centers of science inducted into the National Inventors Engineering Acoustics (1995) and the education and development in the U.S. Hall of Fame (USA) in 1999. ASA Gold Medal in 2006. In 2002 he Its mission is to inspire an understand- James E. West is Research Professor was The Audio Engineering Society ing of and passion for science and tech- of Electrical and Computer Engineering Richard C. Heyser Memorial Lecturer. nology learning. Through the Franklin at Johns Hopkins University in In 2008 he was awarded the 2006 Institute Awards, The Franklin Baltimore, Maryland. He holds 47 U.S. National Medal of Technology, the Institute seeks to broaden public and more than 200 foreign patents on United States highest honor for techno- awareness and encourage an under- various microphones and techniques for logical innovation. standing of the world of science and making polymer electrets. He was Jim West served as President of the technology. inducted into The National Inventors Acoustical Society of America (1998- At Bell Labs in 1962, James West Hall of Fame in 1999 for the invention of 99), member of the Executive Council and Gerhard Sessler patented the elec- the electret microphone. He has (1989-92), and Chair of the Technical tret microphone, in which thin sheets authored more than 100 refereed papers Committee on Engineering Acoustics of polymer film, metal-coated on one and has contributed to several books on (1974-77). He was Cochair of the First side, are given a permanent charge to acoustics, solid state physics, and mate- Pan American/ Iberoamerican Meeting serve as the membrane and bias of a rial science. on Acoustics jointly sponsored by ASA, condenser microphone that helps con- West is a member of the National the Mexican Institute of Acoustics, and vert sound to electrical signals with Academy of Engineering (NAE), the the Iberoamerican Federation of high fidelity. Almost 90 percent of the Board of Directors of The National Acoustics in 2000. 30 Acoustics Today, January 2010 Past President of the International (NTT) Corporation in 1970, and later Institute of Acoustics and Vibration, a served as a Research Fellow and the Fellow of the Australian Acoustical Director of the Furui Research Society and the Institution of Engineers Laboratory at NTT Human Interface (Australia), a Chartered Professional Laboratories, from 1991 to 1997. From Engineer and a member of the December 1978 to December 1979, he Acoustical Society of America and the served on the staff of the Acoustics American Society of Mechanical Research Department of Bell Engineers. Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey, as a visiting researcher. He is currently Sadaoki Furui named recipient of a Professor of the Department of the James L. Flanagan Award Computer Science, Graduate School of Professor Sadaoki Furui, has been Information Science and Engineering, named recipient of the 2010 James L. Tokyo Institute of Technology. He has Flanagan Speech & Audio Processing also served as Dean of the Graduate Colin Hansen Award by the Institute of Electrical and School of Information Science and Electronics Engineers Signal Engineering from 2007 to 2009, and is Colin Hansen awarded Rayleigh Processing Society “for contributions now serving as Director of Institute Medal to and leadership in the field of speech Library. Colin Hansen, was awarded the and speaker recognition towards natu- Dr. Furui’s research interests Institute of Acoustics Rayleigh Medal ral communication between humans include analysis of speaker characteri- at the Euronoise Congress at and machines.” The IEEE James L. zation information in speech waves Edinburgh, October 2009. The Flanagan Speech and Audio Processing and its application to speaker recogni- Rayleigh Medal is the premier award of award is presented for an outstanding tion as well as interspeaker normaliza- the UK’s Institute of Acoustics. It is contribution to the advancement of tion and adaptation in speech recogni- awarded without regard to age to per- speech and/or audio signal processing. tion. He has authored or coauthored sons of undoubted renown for out- The award consists of a bronze over 800 published articles. standing contributions to acoustics. medal, certificate and honorarium. He is a Fellow of the Institute of The medal is named after John William IEEE is a world’s leading association of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Strutt, Third Baron Rayleigh (1842- professionals related to electricity, elec- (IEEE), the Acoustical Society of 1919), a very versatile physicist who tronics, and other technology fields America (ASA), the Institute of conducted both experimental and the- with more than 375,000 members in Electronics, Information and oretical research in virtually every over 160 countries. Communication Engineers of Japan branch of the subject. Sadaoki Furui received B.S., M.S., (IEICE) and the International Speech Professor Hansen was awarded his and Ph.D. degrees in mathematical Communication Association (ISCA). PhD in acoustics and vibration by the engineering and instrumentation He served as President of the ISCA University of Adelaide, Australia, in physics from Tokyo University, Tokyo, from 2001 to 2005, and the Acoustical 1980 and is currently Professor and Japan in 1968, 1970, and 1978, respec- Society of Japan (ASJ) from 2001 to Head of the School of Mechanical tively. He joined the Electrical 2003. He was an Editor-in-Chief of the Engineering at the same university. He Communications Laboratories of Journal of Speech Communication from has spent the last 30 years researching Nippon Telegraph and Telephone 1997 to 2001, Chief Editor of the consulting and teaching in acoustics Journal of the ASJ from 1997 to 1999, and the past 21 years as an academic and Chief Editor of the English Journal staff member at the University of of IEICE from 2001 to 2003. He is a Adelaide. Prior to that he was an member of the Editorial Board of the acoustics and vibration consultant with Journal of Computer Speech and BBN in Los Angeles, USA (4 years) and Language and the Journal of Speech CJ Abell and Co in Adelaide, South Communication. Australia (3 years). His research inter- Dr. Furui has received numerous ests include aeroacoustics, ultrasonics, awards including the Yonezawa Prize and active noise and vibration control. (1975), the Sato Paper Award from the He is the author or co-author of 11 ASJ (1985 and 1987), the Senior Award books, 9 book chapters and the editor from the IEEE Acoustics, Speech, and of 2 books. He has also authored and Signal Processing Society, and the co-authored over 250 papers in peer Achievement Award from the Minister reviewed journals and conference pro- of Science and Technology, both in ceedings. 1989. He received the IEEE Signal Professor Hansen is a Fellow and Sadaoki Furui Processing Society Award, the Acoustical News 31 Achievement Award from the Minister Mr. Goodfriend received a degree year since 2001, the most recent was of Education, Culture, Sports, Science in mechanical engineering from held in Aix-en-Provence in September, and Technology, and the Purple Stevens Institute of Technology in 1947 2009. The next symposium will be held Ribbon Medal from the Japanese and a Master of Electrical Engineering in Tokyo, 9-13 June 2010. Emperor in 2006, and the ISCA Medal degree from the Polytechnic Institute Professor Crum was also elected to for Scientific Achievement in 2009. He of Brooklyn in 1952. He is a licensed the Danish Academy of Natural was awarded the IEICE Book Award professional engineer in New Jersey, Sciences in November, 2009. The (1990), its Achievement Award (2003), New York and California. Danish Academy recognizes contribu- and the IEICE Distinguished Lewis Goodfriend is a Fellow of tions to all the natural sciences and Achievement and Contributions the Acoustical Society of America and limits new membership to 10 per year.