The Acoustical Society of America (abbreviated ASA) is an international scientific society founded in 1929 dedicated to generating, disseminating and promoting the knowledge of acoustics and its practical applications. The Society is primarily a voluntary organization of about 7500 members and attracts the interest, commitment, and service of many professionals.
History
In the summer of 1928, Floyd R. Watson and Wallace Waterfall (1900–1974), a former doctoral student of Watson, were invited by UCLA's Vern Oliver Knudsen to an evening dinner at Knudsen's beach club in Santa Monica. The three physicists decided to form a society of acoustical engineers interested in architectural acoustics. In the early part of December 1928, Wallace Waterfall sent letters to sixteen people inquiring about the possibility of organizing such a society. Harvey Fletcher offered the use of the Bell Telephone Laboratories at 463 West Street in Manhattan as a meeting place for an organizational, initial meeting to be held on December 27, 1928. The meeting was attended by forty scientists and engineers who started the Acoustical Society of America (ASA). Temporary officers were elected: Harvey Fletcher as president, V. O. Knudsen as vice-president, Wallace Waterfall as secretary, and Charles Fuller Stoddard (1876–1958) as treasurer. A constitution and by-laws were drafted. The first issue of the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America was published in October 1929.
Founding members
The first meeting was attended by forty scientists and engineers who started the Acoustical Society of America (ASA). Some of those members include:
The Society has 13 technical committees that represent specialized interests in the field of acoustics. The committees organize technical sessions at conferences and are responsible for the representation of their sub-field in ASA publications. The committees include:
The Acoustical Society of America publishes a wide variety of material related to the knowledge and practical application of acoustics in physics, engineering, architecture, noise, oceanography, biology, speech and hearing, psychology and music.
Sound: Its Uses and Control (1962-1963) online archive —A continuation of Noise Control, with broadened scope.
Meetings
Acoustical Society of America
Genre
Acoustics conference
Frequency
Twice a year
Organisedby
Acoustical Society of America
The ASA hosts meetings twice a year, typically somewhere in North America. In the last few decades, the ASA has hosted joint meetings with other acoustical societies, such as the 137th meeting in 1999, which took place in Berlin and was hosted with the European Acoustics Association (EAA) and the de:German Society for Acoustics (DAGA). The total number of presentations at each meeting is between 850 and 1100. The Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics (POMA) have been published after these meetings since 2007. As of 2026, ASA has hosted nearly 200 meetings on acoustics.
Awards
The ASA presents awards and prizes to individuals for contributions to the field of acoustics. The annual awards are the ASA Gold Medal, the R. Bruce Lindsay Award, and the A.B. Wood Medal and Prize. The remainder are awarded when relevant. Most technical committees also sponsor awards for best student or early career presenter at each conference.
List of awards
Gold Medal — for general contributions to the field.
The ASA offers membership and conference attendance to students at a substantially reduced rate. Conference attendance is further promoted by travel subsidies and formal and informal student meetings and social activities. The ASA also expanded services to students in 2004 by introducing regional student chapters.
12345Waterfall, Wallace (October 1929). "History of Acoustical Society of America". The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 1 (1): 5–8. doi:10.1121/1.1901431.
.svg){kind=logo}
