Newswise — Melville, NY, 29 August 2014 -– James F. (Jim) Lynch has been selected to be the next Editor-in-Chief of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA). He began his service with the ASA as Editor-in-Chief Designate on 15 August 2014 and will assume the title of Editor-in-Chief on 1 November 2014.

As Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Lynch will be responsible for the ASA publications program, including: the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, JASA Express Letters, Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, and Acoustics Today magazine. He is an officer of the Society and will serve as a member of its Executive Council.

Upon accepting the position, Jim Lynch said: “It is both an honor and a privilege to have been selected to serve as ASA’s next Editor-in-Chief, and to follow in the footsteps of a renowned scientist like Allan Pierce. The Editor-in-Chief’s job is both demanding and rewarding, and I look forward to working with the experienced team of Editors and support personnel who make ASA’s publications the excellent quality that they are.”

Jim Lynch is a Senior Scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Woods Hole, MA, where he joined the staff in 1982. His earlier employment included a position at the Applied Research Laboratory, the University of Texas at Austin (1977-81).

Dr. Lynch received a B.S. in Physics from the Stevens Institute of Technology in 1972 and a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Texas at Austin in 1978. He is a Fellow of the ASA and the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). He received the Munk Award in 2009, a joint award of The Oceanography Society, the Office of Naval Research, and the Office of the Oceanographer of the Navy. His research specialty areas are ocean acoustics and acoustical oceanography. He also greatly enjoys occasional forays into physical oceanography, marine geology, and marine biology.

Dr. Lynch served as chair of the ASA Technical Committee on Acoustical Oceanography (1999-01), as a Member of the Executive Council (2011-14), and as Editor of the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America Express Letters, JASA-EL (2009-14). He also served as an Associate Editor of the IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering (1997-98, 2005-14) and later as its Chief Editor (1999-2004).

Judy R. Dubno, President of the ASA, noted that “Jim’s many years of experience as an editor and acoustical scientist puts ASA in position to further strengthen and expand its publications program and to promote the Society's mission to increase and diffuse the knowledge of acoustics and its practical applications.”

ABOUT THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICAThe Acoustical Society of America (ASA) is the premier international scientific society in acoustics devoted to the science and technology of sound. Its 7,500 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 each year. For more information about the ASA, visit our website at http://acousticalsociety.org.