Western world. He later developed and manufactured a line of audiometric booths and a V-rigged functional absorbent panel structure for gynma- siums, swimming pools, and the like.

Eckel did not stop with acoustics. He also invented a type of flexible, self-closing double doors for use in plants where fork trucks and other vehi- cles must pass from one space to another by impacting them open without stopping. The doors are both long lasting and quiet. Other significant inven- tions included environmental controls, a shrouded wind-turbine electrical generator that is quiet compared to propeller-driven generators, and a unique quieting system for jet-engine test cells. Five of his patents were reviewed in the Patents section of the Journal. In many ways, both large and small, Ollie influenced the design of noise and vibration control methods for many applications. He also presented and published a number of applica- tion papers.

He was a life member ofASHRAE, a member of the Institute of Noise Control Engineering, and the Academy of Applied Science. He was a Regis- tered Professional Engineer in Massachusetts.

Ollie will be remembered by the acoustical consultants of this country as the manufacturer who would design a noise control product to meet almost any requirement. As a friend and person of integrity, the profession has known no finer.

Oliver C. Eckel is survived by his second wife, Helen, a son by his first marriage, Alan, who is president of Eckel Industries, and 12 grandchildren.

transparencies, some improvement might eventually be affected. Other problems persist, but they are probably hopeless. With parallel sessions, there is no way, given the broad range of interests of most of our members, to avoid the situation that two or even more of the papers some member wants most to hear are presented simultaneously. Similarly, whether or not the number of meetings per year should be reduced seems to have reached a dead end; although a couple of the Technical Committees voted almost unanimously to support a change to a single meeting, there was complete disagreement as to which meeting, spring or fall, should be eliminated or boycotted. And of course nobody has a crystal ball that will accurately predict the audience size associated with any given session or paper.

So the success of the Syracuse meeting is due entirely to the untiring efforts of the Syracuse Local Committee, chaired by JosefJ. Zwislocki (who claims credit for the ideal weather conditions that prevailed during--and only during--the meetings), particularly Ronald T. Verrillo (facilities) and Christopher W. Turner (audiovisual), and also Stanley J. Bolanowski, Jr., Robert L. Smith, Evan M. Relkin, Norma B. Slepecky, and Raymond H. Colton. Our heartfelt thanks go to them.

W. DIXON WARD

President 1988-89

LEO L. BERANEK

117th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, held in Syracuse, 22-26 May 1989

The 117th meeting of the Society was held in Syracuse, 22-26 May 1989, at the Sheraton University Inn and at Syracuse University. The meet- ing, our first in Syracuse, drew a registration of 1005, including 65 from outside America, which made it the largest spring meeting in the last 10 years, with an overall ranking of 16.

The technical program was composed of 64 sessions comprising 651 traditional papers and posters, augmented by a special 23-participant poster session on Music Education Facilities Since 1975. There were 1023 authors, so that the author/paper ratio was 1.5714 on average; the hyperactivity award was won by Bob Apfel, who had seven papers. As usual, the greatest number of papers, 165, was found in Speech Communication, followed by Psychological and Physiological Acoustics with 118, and Physical Acous- tics with 90. Special sessions included memorial sessions for Raymond D. Mindlin and Warren P. Mason, as well as sessions devoted to interactions between neurophysiology and psychoacoustics, thermoacoustic engines, mechanotransduction, vibrotaction, percussive musical instruments, mod- al analysis, and sea surface noise. The most novel special session, developed by the new Technical Specialty Group on Animal Bioacoustics, was on application of physical acoustics to agriculture, which included papers on sonic and ultrasonic noises or signals generated by insects and possibly by diseased plants. A reminder that most of our members are educators as well as researchers was provided by the fact that not even standing room could be found at a session on demonstrations of experiments in acoustics orga- nized by the Education in Acoustics Committee.

The seventh Monday Tutorial, presented by Herman Medwin, on "Acoustical Oceanography: Child of Ocean Acoustics," was also well at- tended by an appreciative audience.

At the plenary session, the Society's Gold Medal was awarded to Lothar W. Cremer "for identifying and solving key problems in acoustics and acoustical engineering and for the impact of his teachings and writ- ings." The R. Bruce Lindsay Award was recieved by Mark. F. Hamilton. The plenary session concluded with a short recital by Professor Will Head- lee on the Syracuse University Holtkamp Organ, preceded by.a lecture on its history. Following the plenary session, some 140 participants enjoyed, in lieu of a banquet, a "champagne" dinner either on a cruise ship on Skanea- teles Lake or at the renowned Krebs Restaurant.

By all objective measure, the meeting was a resounding success. The only major problem that seems to recur, meeting after meeting, but which should be solvable, is the use of visual aids that are essentially unreadable. Perhaps if members would boo and hiss the presentation of illegible slides or

Awards presented at 117th Meeting of the Society

The Spring meeting in Syracuse featured the presentation of the Gold Medal to Lothar W. Cremer and the R. Bruce Lindsay Award to Mark F. Hamilton.

Dr. Cremer was introduced by Dr. Istvan Ver. The encomium, which was published in the Program of the 117th Meeting of the Society, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Suppl. 1 85 (1989), was co-authored by Dr. Ver and Dr. Theodore J. Schultz. Dr. Cremer was cited for "identifying and solving key problems in acoustics and acoustical engineering and for the impact of his teachings and writings."

Dr. Hamilton was introduced by Dr. Ilene Busch-Vishniac, the 1987 recipient of the R. Bruce Lindsay Award. Dr. Hamilton was cited for "con- tributions to nonlinear acoustics, particularly parametric arrays, intense sound beams, and waveguides." The encomium (also printed in the Pro- gram of the 117th Meeting) was co-authored by Dr. Busch-Vishniac and Dr. David T. Blackstock.

President Dixon Ward made the presentations (see Figs. 1 and 2). The brass tuning fork, traditionally given to the retiring President, was present- ed to Dr. Ward by incoming President, Harvey Hubbard (Fig. 3).

FIG. 1. ASA President W. Dixon Ward presents the Gold Medal to Lothar W. Cremer.

2035 J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 86(5), Nov. 1989; 0001-4966/89/112035-02500.80; ¸ 1989 Acoust. Soc. Am.; Acoust. News--USA 2035

Redistribution subject to ASA license or copyright; see http://acousticalsociety.org/content/terms. Download to IP: 128.240.225.44 On: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 09:35:55