Peter Westervelt

Peter Westervelt (born 1919) is an American physicist and Professor Emeritus of Physics at Brown University. A nephew of George Conrad Westervelt, he is known for his work in nonlinear acoustics.

He is especially renowned for his application of the theory of Sir Michael James Lighthill, for his important contributions to the understanding of nonlinear scattering of sound by sound, and for his discoveries of the parametric array [http://scitation.aip.org/getabs/servlet/GetabsServlet?prog=normal&id=JASMAN000119000005003231000004&idtype=cvips&gifs=yes] and the laser-excited thermoacoustic array [http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1975uta..rept.....C] . His lifetime of physics research spans other aspects of acoustics as well, include the contributions to the understanding of acoustic radiation pressure [http://www.accessscience.com/Encyclopedia/0/00/Est_006200_frameset.html?doi] , which has applications to Acoustic levitation and other devices which exploit macrosonic phenomena [http://www.macrosonix.com] and acoustic streaming, as well as to several other fields of Physics (with example references shown here), including General Relativity, [http://www.osti.gov/energycitations/product.biblio.jsp?osti_id=4713737] , [http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1971regr.conf..323W] (primarily in the area of Gravitational Waves [http://scitation.aip.org/getabs/servlet/GetabsServlet?prog=normal&id=JASMAN0000570000S1000S30000003&idtype=cvips&gifs=yes] ), including Gravitational phenomena analogous to the parametric array [http://scitation.aip.org/getabs/servlet/GetabsServlet?prog=normal&id=JASMAN0000550000S1000S76000003&idtype=cvips&gifs=yes] , Cosmology [http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v274/n5671/abs/274565a0.html] [http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v279/n5709/abs/279137a0.html] , low temperature physics [http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v15/i19/p748_1] the Physics of Sound in Liquid Helium, and High Energy Particle Physics (primarily in the area of cosmic ray particle detectors [http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1978nli..rept.....W] ). Professor Westervelt began his career in 1940-41 at the MIT Radiation Laboratory and the Harvard Underwater Sound Laboratory, where he worked with such luminaries as F.V. Hunt [http://libserv.aip.org:81/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=116V948H369I4.8798&profile=newcustom-icos&uri=link=3100014~!76798~!3100001~!3100002&aspect=subtab129&menu=search&ri=2&source=~!horizon&term=Westervelt%2C+Peter+J.+%28Peter+Jocelyn%29%2C+1919-&index=#focus] ,Leo Beranek (National Medal of Science winner) and Phillip Morse [http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=5414] during WW-II. 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 [http://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/Databases/Encyclopedia/search.php?serial=P0240] . During his long and distinguished career, he held responsbile 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, 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). Professor 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. Professor Westervelt was awarded the Lord Rayleigh Medal [http://www.ioa.org.uk/medals.asp] in 1985, by the British Institute for Acoustics. He became Professor Emeritus at the Brown University Physics Department in 1989, yet still remains active in physics research. Professor Emeritus Peter Westervelt was recently selected by the Acoustical Society of America to receive the Silver Medal in Physical Acoustics for his discovery and explanation of the Parametric Array. He is slated to receive the award in November, 2008 at the Fall Meeting of the Society in Miami.