Reminiscences of Brown University during the 1950s

After World War II, Brown University was known internationally as one of several major centers for fundamental research in physical acoustics, with faculty and students engaged in studying properties of sound fields in gases, liquids, and solids, under linear and nonlinear conditions. Students came to Brown to benefit from this atmosphere and went on to establish their own programs at other institutions. In the Physics Department the emphasis among areas of acoustics changed with time, following nationwide trends. For a few faculty and students, there was increased activity in areas of physical acoustics which were proving to be important to the emerging fields of biophysics and biomedical engineering. These areas included ultrasound field description, ultrasound propagation, radiation pressure, and acoustic streaming, to which major contributions had been made by R. B. Lindsay, A. O. Williams, Jr., R. T. Beyer, and P. J. Westervelt, among others. In this talk, specific examples will be discussed.