Busch-Vishniac to Lead ASA

Ilene Busch-Vishniac, who was elected president-elect of the Acoustical Society of America, took office on 5 June 2002, succeeding Richard Stern. Busch-Vishniac, dean of the G. W. C. Whiting School of Engineering at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, will become president of the society in 2003.

“As president I will focus on the two biggest challenges ASA faces: balance and vitality,” Busch-Vishniac said. “The society traditionally has been well served by its great breadth in terms of discipline coverage and type of member (academic and practitioner). If ASA is to succeed in the future, it must maintain this breadth and balance the needs of various members with equitable distribution of precious resources. It must send a clear message of valuing all of its members equally.” She added that ASA must recognize that its membership is aging and “either face its demise in a relatively short future or craft ways to engage more junior acousticians in its activities.” She noted that many opportunities exist to create new programs that will target acousticians at early stages of their careers and significantly enhance the value of ASA to them. “By focusing on issues of balance and vitality, we can ensure the preeminence and financial viability of the ASA for many years to come.”

Busch-Vishniac earned a BS in physics and a BA in mathematics from the University of Rochester in 1976, and received her PhD in mechanical engineering from MIT in 1981. Before joining the University of Texas at Austin in 1982, she had been a member of the technical staff in the acoustic research department at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey. At UT Austin, she taught mechanical engineering and was associate chair for academic affairs from 1991 to 1994. In 1998, she moved to her current position at Johns Hopkins. Her research focuses on noise control and transduction. Her area of specialization is the application of system dynamics techniques to the special problems of sensors and actuators of multiple energy domains.

Also taking office will be Steven M. Brown (Steelcase Inc in Caledonia, Michigan) and Ronald A. Roy (Boston University) for three-year terms as members of the ASA executive council and Anthony A. Atchley (Pennsylvania State University) for a one-year term as vice president–elect.