"As you obsolesce as a scientist, if you live long enough, you turn into a historian. I guess that's what's happened to me.", Arnold Arons, Oct. 2000, WHOI Ocean Acoustics Lab.

Presented here are talks by prominent acousticians visiting the Ocean Acoustics Lab at WHOI. The actual recordings and/or video are availailable by request from the WHOI archives. Transcriptions of each talk can be downloaded below.

Robert A. Frosch

Robert Frosch

Robert Frosch has had a distinguished career. He received his undergraduate and graduate degrees in theoretical physics at Columbia and then received his Ph.D. at the young age of 23. After that, he advanced at Hudson Laboratories to Director of Research, where he was a project manager of ARTEMIS, which developed active sonar for the Navy. In September 1963, he went to Washington DC to work with the Advanced Research Projects Agency in the US Department of Defense, serving as Director for Nuclear Test Detection and as the authority for the program of research and development as deputy director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency. Frosch moved on to become Assistant Secretary of the Navy and was in charge of all the research and development at the US Navy. Later, he became Assistant Executive Director of the United Nations Enviromental Program and then went on to NASA, where Frosch was the 5th administrator. In January 1981 he moved to General Motors where he was appointed Vice President of Research and Development in research labs. He is still active in both scientific and technical policy activities today.
         AOPE Seminar 7/11/07 Transcription and a DVD video by request (also in WHOI AOPE Dept Library) are available.
         AOPE Seminar 4/07/08 Transcription and a DVD video by request (also in WHOI AOPE Dept Library) are available. Video (.WMV) can be downloaded here as well.
        Other related links: Society Prize for Outstanding Research in Industrial Ecology
                                    NASA Nomination of Robert Frosch to be Administrator by Jimmy Carter
                                    NASA Biography of Robert Frosch
                                    Wikipedia Biography of Robert Frosch





Arnold Arons
Arnold Arons
Arnold Arons is recognized world-wide for his great contributions to physics and physics education. He recieved his PhD in physical chemistry in 1943 from Harvard University. World War II brought Arons to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where he was a group leader in the Underwater Explosion Research Laboratory. He is well known for his studies here at WHOI of abyssal oceanic circulation and cloud physics and for experimental and theoretical work on phase distortion of acoustic pulses reflected from the seabed. From 1946 on, he taught at Stevens Institue of Technology, Amherst College, and University of Washington. In these years he revitalized the traditional physics of the time with his teaching techniques and numerous articles and books. His acomplishments even placed him as a subject of a TIME magazine cover story on education! Arons also served on many committees, including the NSF commission of college physics, as a trustee of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and the American Institute of Physics. Arons passed away on February 28, 2001 in his Seattle home, but his contributions to physics and physics education will live on.
        OAL Seminar 10/11/00 Transcription and an audio CD by request (also in WHOI AOPE Dept Library) are available.
        Other related links: PHYSICS TODAY Obituary
                                    WHOI Obituary
                                    TIME Magazine Article - May 6, 1966
                                    Henry Stommel with Arnold Arons wikipedia





Peter Westervelt

Peter Westervelt
Peter Westervelt is a physicist who has made great contributions to the field of acoustics. His application of the theory of Sir James Lighthill is especially renowned with his contributions to understanding absorption of sound by sound and nonlinear-scattering of sound by sound. He also discovered and explained the principles of the parametric array. During his career, he was responsible for work with the National Academy of Sciences and the National Research Council and was elected to be Fellow of the American Physical Society, the Acoustical Society of America, and the American Astronomical Society. Westervelt was also Assistant Attache for Research in the U.S. Navy, served at the American Embassy in London and as Consultant to Bolt, Beranek, and Newman, along with making breakthroughs at the University of Texas at Austin on new techniques and applications on the study of sound by sound scattering. Lastly, he is a Professor Emeritus at the Brown University Physics Department and is still sharing his vast knowledge and lively stories today.
         OAL Seminar 11/15/06 Transcription and a DVD video by request (also in WHOI AOPE Dept Library) are available.
        Other related links: Wikipedia Biography of Peter Westervelt