ACOUSTICAL NEWS FROM ABROAD

Walter G. Mayer Physics Department, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057

Czechoslovakia establishes acoustical society Earlier this year, the Czechoslovak Acoustical Society was founded.

The new society is a voluntary, nonprofit organization whose members are professionals working in any field of acoustics. The board of the society has not yet been established and the organizing committee represents the so- ciety. The size of the initial membership is expected to be around 500.

The objectives of the society are to stimulate scientific research and education in all branches of acoustics, to organize conferences, courses, and workshops, to support the exchange of information, to promote relations between research and industry, and to collaborate with other national acoustical societies. The new society will hold its first general assembly in late 1990. Further details and information about membership can be ob- tained from the founding committee, L. Rufer, Czech Technical University, FEL-Radio Electronics, Technickfi 2, 16627 Prague 6, Czechoslovakia.

International Conference on Ultrasonics in

Engineering to be held in Arkangelsk, Summer 1991

Ultrasonics in Engineering-91 will be held in the conference hall of the city of Arkhangelsk, USSR, 23-29 July 1991. The meeting is sponsored by various USSR State Committees, USSR Academy of Sciences Institutes, and other technical or scientific organizations. The scope of the conference will include physical fundamentals of ultrasonics; design of ultrasonic tech- nological complexes; measurement of process load variables, oscillatory systems and power sources; control of ultrasonic processes; manufacture of ultrasonic equipment; high-power ultrasonics in industry. An exhibition will be open during the conference.

Accommodation will be in hotels with public transportation to the conference site. A social program is planned that includes a 3-day boat trip (weekend after the meeting) in the White Sea to the Solovetsky Islands. Further information can be obtained from the local organizing committee, E. Sh. Statnikov, Sevmashvtuz-MNTL Kvant, Severodvinsk Arkhangel- skoii 164508, USSR.

Cognitive Aspects of Human Audition---Paris, February 1991

The Hearing Group of the French Acoustical Society and IRCAM will hold a Tutorial Workshop on Cognitive Aspects of Human Audition at the Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris, 21-22 February 1991. The workshop will deal with the present state of research in nonverbal auditory cognition, a field that is beginning to affirm itself as a new research orientation. There will be eight tutorial presentations, followed by discussions and questions. Three of the 1-h presentations will be in French, the rest will be given in English. Further information and registration forms are available from Groupe Audition (SFA), Laboratoire de Psychologie Exp(•rimentale, 28 rue Serpente, 75006 Paris, France.

Institute of Acoustics (U.K.) awards prizes Four acousticians were recently honored by the Institute of Acoustics

for their contributions in various fields of acoustics.

The Rayleigh Medal 1990 was awarded to Francis John Fahy, profes- sor of engineering acoustics at Southhampton. His contributions are nu- merous and range from pioneering work on the direct measurement of sound intensity to writing a textbook, Sound and Structural Vibration. He

received the Medal for his fundamental contributions to our understanding of acoustics.

The A B Wood Medal 1990 went to Ann Patricia Dowling, reader at the University of Cambridge. She has worked extensively in the areas of heat/flow/sound/surface interactions, and has been active in teaching, par- ticularly in the area of rigorous mathematical models as applied to complex, real engineering problems. She received the award for teaching and research in acoustics.

The Tyndall Medal 1990 was awarded to Nicholas Gaze Pace. Since his appointment as Lecturer at the University of Bath, his research has covered many topics in the field of underwater acoustics. His fundamental work on the remote classification of the seabed using side beam sonar is widely quoted. He received the Tyndall Medal for contributions to the fun- damental understanding of the interaction of acoustic waves with materials.

The honor of being invited to present the R W B Stephens lecture 1990 went to John Bowsher. He had been concerned with major research pro- grams in musical acoustics, including nonlinear processes and psycho- acoustics. Financial constraints forced him to close the work down and take early retirement. The title of his 1990 Stephens lecture was A Personal View of Musical Acoustics.

End of an era

As we go to press, we received the sad news that Raymond W. B. Stephens passed away on 28 August 1990, a month and a half before his 88th birthday. Ellie and Ray Stephens had moved away from London some time ago t? be near their family. Ellie passed away earlier this year and Ray followed her 6 months later. His death marks the end of an era in acoustics. He and Warren P. Mason were the two great "deans" of acoustics on the two sides of the Atlantic who greatly influenced many aspects of acoustics during the middle of this century. Countless acousticians were associated with them and learned from them during their long years of research and teaching. Whoever had the privilege of knowing the Masons and the Ste- phens was surely touched by the energy, knowledge, kindness, and humility of these four great people. The last of the four, Ray Stephens, has now left us. May the accompanying photograph (Fig. 1 ), taken during the London ICA in 1974, be a reminder and a memory.

An appropriate obituary will appear in the January 1991 issue of the Journal.

WALTER G. MAYER

Georgetown University Washington, DC 2005 7

FIG. 1. Professor and Mrs. Stephens (left) and Mrs. and Dr. Mason at the 8th International Congress on Acoustics, London, 1974.

2498 J. Acoust. $oc. Am. 88(5), Nov. 1990 0001-4966/90/112498-01 $00.80 @ 1990 Acoustical Society of America 2498

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