Acoustics Scientists, Students Converge at Ole Miss for Prestigious Summer School

OXFORD, Miss. – Graduate and post-graduate students from four countries are headed to the University of Mississippi this week to learn the latest in cutting-edge physical acoustics, including infrasound, medical acoustics, thermoacoustics, nonlinear acoustics, waves and bubbles.
It’s all part of the Physical Acoustics Summer School 2012, hosted this year by the university’s National Center for Physical Acoustics, with support from the University of Texas, Pennsylvania State University and the Acoustical Society of America. The sessions begin Wednesday and run through May 29 at the Yerby Conference Center.

This year’s edition of PASS includes 39 students from Egypt, France, the Netherlands and the United States coming to Ole Miss for an intense series of lectures designed to bring together a diverse group of acoustic experts and graduate/post-graduate students, highlighting important topical research in the field. Josh Gladden, NCPA research scientist and UM associate professor of physics, is the director for PASS 2012.

“PASS is an excellent model for how professional summer schools should operate: internationally recognized experts in the field lecturing to and interacting with leading graduate students so that they may begin their careers with both a firm knowledge of cutting edge research and a broad understanding of the field as a whole,” Gladden said. “As a graduate of PASS 2000, I know firsthand how valuable this experience will be for these students.”

Although the National Center for Physical Acoustics has always been a key member of the PASS organization, this is the first time Ole Miss has hosted the prestigious school.

The inaugural school in 1992 was held Monterey, Calif., in cooperation with the Naval Post Graduate School. The program later moved to Santa Fe, N.M., with Los Alamos National Laboratory as a supporting institution.

For more information on the National Center for Physical Acoustics, go to http://ncpa.olemiss.edu/.