Nico F. Declercq

Nico Felicien Declercq (Kortrijk (Belgium), 27 December 1975) is a physicist and mechanical engineer. He is a professor with the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta and Georgia Tech Lorraine in France. He is specialized in ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation of materials, propagation of ultrasonic waves in highly complex materials, in acoustics, in theoretical and experimental linear and nonlinear ultrasonics, acousto-optics, Medical Physics and Acoustic Microscopy. He has investigated the acoustics of Chichen Itza and Epidaurus.He published over 100 works in scientific journals. As a Ph.D. student (September 5, 2001 - May 12, 2005), Declercq published 30 peer-reviewed articles in reputed scientific journals, including Annalen der Physik, and made 42 presentations (with papers in proceedings) at international congresses in his field. His work was highlighted in Nature News, New Scientist, USA Today, The Economist, The Washington Post, Die Zeit, and Acoustics Today. Declercq received his BSc and MSc in physics (with a major in astrophysics) from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in 1996 and 2000, respectively, and received a PhD in engineering physics from Ghent University in 2005. He worked as a Belgian National Science Foundation (FWO Vlaanderen) postdoctoral fellow with Ghent University and has been a visiting scientist, supported by NATO, at the National Center for Physical Acoustics at the University of Mississippi, before joining Georgia Tech in 2006. Declercq received the International Dennis Gabor Award from the NOVOFER Foundation of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences on December 21, 2006. He received the ICA Early Career Award "For outstanding contributions to ultrasonics, particularly for studies of propagation and diffraction of acoustic waves" from the International Commission for Acoustics in 2007. Declercq has been president (2013-2015) of the steering board of the International Congress on Ultrasonics, as well as president of their 2015 congress.