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 organization of about 7500 members and attracts the interest, commitment, and service of many professionals. 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. 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: Acoustical oceanography Animal bioacoustics Architectural acoustics Biomedical acoustics Computational acoustics (Technical Specialty Group) Acoustical engineering Musical acoustics Noise Physical acoustics Psychoacoustics Signal processing in acoustics Speech communication Structural acoustics and vibration Underwater acoustics The first meeting was attended by forty scientists and engineers who started the Acoustical Society of America (ASA).