Spotlight on Women’s Voices in Acoustics Today

Women's Voices Alex Tolstoy

Acoustics Today (AT) articles have been written by women, but Volume 14, Issue 3 was special because it was the first issue where all the senior authors were women. One of the founders of the ASA Women in Acoustics (WIA) Committee, Alex Tolstoy, painted the cover artwork to accompany her co-authored article “In Her Own Words: An Acoustic Story.” Pictures of each of the senior authors from the issue can be found within the painting. In honor of Women’s History Month, let’s look at some AT articles featuring women’s voices and that have been published since.

Women's Voices Allison B. Coffin

First up is Allison B. Coffin, author of “Communicate Your Science: Engaging Public Audiences with Acoustics.” Allison is an associate professor of neuroscience at Washington State University Vancouver. Her research interests include cell signaling regulation of hearing loss and regeneration and hormonal modulation of auditory plasticity. She is a passionate science communicator and communication trainer and cofounded Science Talk, the science communication professional society, where she serves as the president.

Women's Voices Bonnie K. Lau

Next is Bonnie K. Lau, the author of “Pitch Perception in a Developing Auditory Brain.” She is a research assistant professor at the University of Washington (Seattle). Her research investigates auditory brain and perceptual development and how that relates to language acquisition. She combines neurophysiological measures, including electroencephalography and magnetoencephalography, psychophysics, and clinical assessment methods, in her research. Bonnie is a member of the WIA Committee as well as the Psychological and Physiological Technical Committee of the ASA.

Women's Voices Delilah E. A. Gates

Then we have Delilah E. A. Gates, author of “The ‘Sounds’ of Black Holes.” Delilah is an associate research scholar at Princeton University. She is a theoretical physicist whose research focuses on studying observational signatures of spinning black holes by leveraging features of the space-time geometry and lensing of light around them. Outside of physics, Delilah enjoys poetry, board/card games, and decorating cakes.

Women's Voices Meaghan A. O’Reilly

Last, but not least, is Meaghan A. O’Reilly, author of “Incisionless Brain Surgery: Overcoming the Skull with Focused Ultrasound.” Meaghan is a senior scientist in Physical Sciences at Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, an associate professor of Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto, and the Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Biomedical Ultrasound. Her research interests include ultrasound therapy in the central nervous system, with a focus on delivery, monitoring, and control of microbubble-mediated therapies in the brain and spinal cord through the intact bone.

Celebrate the collective achievements of extraordinary women in acoustics and discover more articles written by WIA committee members on the AT Collections page at https://acousticstoday.org/at-collections-women-in-acoustics/. For a deeper dive into the WIA committee, visit womeninacoustics.org.

Spring Issue of Acoustics Today now out!

The spring issue of Acoustics Today is now out! The cover features close up images of mud from the New England Mud Patch. The related article talks about why the acoustics of mud are interesting and important (pg. 37). (Fun fact, the image is actually adapted from a figure in this POMA article!)

Other topics in this issue:

  • The ways acoustical oceanographers use underwater ambient sound to measure the complex internal structure of the ocean,
  • The unprecedented changes in the world’s acoustical environments that people observed during the pandemic
  • Changes to soundscapes as the world enters a postpandemic era
  • Jim Simmons’ career studying bat echolocation
  • The unique acoustics of large venues like arenas, stadiums, and ampitheaters

Plus there’s an interview with Karl Grosh of University of Michigan, an overview of the International Liaison Committee’s Excellence in Acoustics Around the World session during the most recent ASA meeting, and look at how students are fostering inclusion in the field of acoustics.

If you don’t want to wait for your print copy to arrive in the mail, you can check out the entire issue online!

 

Spring Acoustics Today

February 2024 JASA Express Letters Cover

The February JASA Express Letters cover features Figure 2b from the article, “Scattering measurements of rocky seafloors using a split-beam echosounder,” by Jen A. Gruber and Derek R. Olson. The image depicts a comparison of estimated bathymetry with ground truth from California State University, Monterey Bay, plotted in across-shore and along-shore coordinates.

This month’s issue had a couple Editor’s Picks:

Browse the rest of the issue at https://pubs.aip.org/asa/jel/issue/4/2.

 

February JASA Express Letters cover

February 2024 JASA Cover

The February cover of JASA is now available! Check it out:

The cover image is Figures 10a and 11a and b, of “A reduced-order-model-based equivalent circuit for piezoelectric micro-electro-mechanical-system loudspeakers modeling,” by C. Gazzola, V. Zega, A. Corigliano, P. Lotton, and M. Melon. The top portion features a electro-mechano-acoustic finite element model implemented in COMSOL Multiphysics® for free-field conditions, while the bottom shows a fabricated microspeaker and the acoustic measurement setup used in the study.

Some other research was also highlighted on the Februaray JASA cover:

All the articles from the cover are free to read for a month after the cover is released, so be sure to check them out! You can find the whole issue at https://pubs.aip.org/asa/jasa/issue/155/2.

February JASA cover

January 2024 JASA Express Letters Cover

The January JASA Express Letters cover features Figure 3 from the article, “Mapping palatal shape to electromagnetic articulography data: An approach using 3D scanning and sensor matching,” by Yukiko Nota, Tatsuya Kitamura, Hironori Takemoto, and Kikuo Maekawa. The image depicts a scanned image of a person’s palate. This article was also an Editor’s Pick on the journal main page.

This month’s issue had some other exciting content to highlight:

Browse the rest of the issue at https://pubs.aip.org/asa/jel/issue/4/1.

January JASA Express Letters Cover