Melville (NY), 8 October 2015--Brian G. Ferguson, Principal Scientist in the Maritime Division at the Defence Science and Technology Organization (DSTO), Australia, has been named recipient of the Acoustical Society of America's Silver Medal in Signal Processing in Acoustics for contributions to in-air and in-water acoustic classification, localization and tracking. The award will be presented at the 170th meeting of the ASA on 4 November 2015 in Jacksonville, Florida.
The Silver Medal is presented to individuals for contributions to the advancement of science, engineering, or human welfare through the application of acoustic principles, or through research accomplishments in acoustics.
"The Acoustical Society of America is the premier international learned society in acoustics. This prestigious award by the Society for scientific achievement represents the highlight of a career committed to scientific research in acoustic signal processing. I am grateful to the Society's leaders, members, and my nominators, who have always welcomed, involved, taught, and inspired me for three decades. Thank you. Finally, I am appreciative of the enduring support, which enables my participation in the Society's activities, provided by Australia's Defence Science and Technology Organisation that has excellence in defense science and technology as its core value." said Ferguson.
Brian Ferguson received a Ph.D. from The University of New South Wales. He served in various positions at DSTO since 1992 including Head, Submarine Sonar and Head, Acoustic Systems. His research interests are in acoustic signal processing having Defense and national security applications, which involves detecting, classifying (including imaging), localizing and tracking sources of sound, both in air and under water. Acoustic signal processing extracts information about an object from its acoustic signature (sound that it radiates) or its echo (response after insonification by a sonar transmission). The received signals are often weak and masked by interference, reverberation or noise.
Dr. Ferguson is a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America and the Institution of Engineers Australia. Also, he is a Chartered Professional Engineer. He received the NATO Research and Development Organisation's Scientific Achievement Award in 2009 and the Science and Technology Achievement Award of The Technical Cooperation Program between the Governments of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States in 2011. He has published over 40 papers in peer reviewed science and engineering journals and is author or coauthor of three book chapters. He has over 50 papers published in the proceedings of international conferences.
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The Acoustical Society of America (ASA) is the premier international scientific society in acoustics devoted to the science and technology of sound. Its 7000 members worldwide represent a broad spectrum of the study of acoustics. ASA publications include the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America--the world's leading journal on acoustics, Acoustics Today magazine, books, and standards on acoustics. The Society also holds two major scientific meetings per year. For more information about the Society visit our website, http://www.acousticalsociety.org