Peter Westervelt (December 16, 1919 – January 24, 2015) was an American physicist, noted for his work in

nonlinear acoustics Nonlinear acoustics (NLA) is a branch of physics and acoustics dealing with sound waves of sufficiently large amplitudes. Large amplitudes require using full systems of governing equations of fluid dynamics (for sound waves in liquids and gas ...

, and Professor Emeritus of Physics at Brown University.

Education

He received his BS in Physics from MIT in 1947, and his PhD in Physics from MIT in 1951, at which time he joined the Physics Department at Brown University.

Career

Westervelt began his career in 1940-41 at the

MIT Radiation Laboratory The Radiation Laboratory, commonly called the Rad Lab, was a microwave and radar research laboratory located at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was first created in October 1940 and operated until 31 ...

and the Harvard Underwater Sound Laboratory, where he worked with researchers including

Frederick Vinton Hunt Frederick Vinton Hunt (February 15, 1905 – April 21, 1972) was an inventor, a scientist and a professor at Harvard University who worked in the field of acoustic engineering. He made significant contributions to room acoustics, regulated power ...

Leo Beranek Leo Leroy Beranek (September 15, 1914 – October 10, 2016) was an American acoustics expert, former MIT professor, and a founder and former president of Bolt, Beranek and Newman (now BBN Technologies). He authored ''Acoustics'', considered a cl ...

(

National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social scienc ...

winner) and Phillip Morse during the Second World War. During his long and distinguished career, he held responsible assignments with the National Academy of Sciences, and the National Research Council, and was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society, the

Acoustical Society of America The Acoustical Society of America (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 org ...

, and the American Astronomical Society. He served as Assistant Attache for Research, U.S. Navy, at the American Embassy in London, U.K., and as a Consultant to Bolt, Beranek, and Newman (now

BBN Technologies Raytheon BBN (originally Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc.) is an American research and development company, based next to Fresh Pond in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. In 1966, the Franklin Institute awarded the firm the Frank P. Brown ...

). Westervelt also performed research at the University of Texas at Austin, where he developed new techniques, having widespread application, for the study of sound-by-sound scattering and the laser-excited

thermoacoustics Thermoacoustics is the interaction between temperature, density and pressure variations of acoustic waves. Thermoacoustic heat engines can readily be driven using solar energy or waste heat and they can be controlled using proportional control. T ...

. Westervelt was awarded the Lord

Rayleigh Medal The Rayleigh Medal is a prize awarded annually by the Institute of Acoustics for "outstanding contributions to acoustics". The prize is named after John Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh. It should not be confused with the medal of the same name awarded ...

in 1985, by the British Institute for Acoustics. He became Professor Emeritus at the Brown University Physics Department in 1989.

Research

He is especially renowned for his application of the theory of Sir Michael

James Lighthill Sir Michael James Lighthill (23 January 1924 – 17 July 1998) was a British applied mathematician, known for his pioneering work in the field of aeroacoustics and for writing the Lighthill report on artificial intelligence. Biography J ...

, for his important contributions to the understanding of nonlinear scattering of sound by sound, and for his discoveries of the

parametric array A parametric array, in the field of acoustics, is a nonlinear transduction mechanism that generates narrow, nearly side lobe-free beams of low frequency sound, through the mixing and interaction of high frequency sound waves, effectively overcomin ...

and the laser-excited thermoacoustic array. His lifetime of physics research spans other aspects of acoustics as well, include the contributions to the understanding of acoustic radiation pressure, which has applications to

Acoustic levitation Acoustic levitation is a method for suspending matter in air against gravity using acoustic radiation pressure from high intensity sound waves. It works on the same principles as acoustic tweezers by harnessing acoustic radiation forces. However ...

and other devices which exploit macrosonic phenomena and acoustic streaming, as well as to several other fields of Physics (with example references shown here), including

General Relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity and Einstein's theory of gravity, is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of gravitation in modern physics ...

, (primarily in the area of gravitational waves), including Gravitational phenomena analogous to the parametric array, Cosmology, low temperature physics the Physics of Sound in Liquid Helium, and High Energy Particle Physics (primarily in the area of

cosmic ray Cosmic rays are high-energy particles or clusters of particles (primarily represented by protons or atomic nuclei) that move through space at nearly the speed of light. They originate from the Sun, from outside of the Solar System in our own ...

particle detector In experimental and applied particle physics, nuclear physics, and nuclear engineering, a particle detector, also known as a radiation detector, is a device used to detect, track, and/or identify ionizing particles, such as those produced by nu ...

s.)

Awards

Peter Westervelt was awarded the

by the British Institute of Acoustics in 1985. He also received the Silver Medal in Physical Acoustics from the

for his discovery and explanation of the

Parametric Array A parametric array, in the field of acoustics, is a nonlinear transduction mechanism that generates narrow, nearly side lobe-free beams of low frequency sound, through the mixing and interaction of high frequency sound waves, effectively overcomin ...

in 2008.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Westervelt, Peter 1919 births 2015 deaths American physicists MIT Department of Physics alumni Brown University faculty Fellows of the American Physical Society Fellows of the Acoustical Society of America