Description

The sixth International Conference on Theoretical and Computational Acoustics (ICTCA)
was held August 11-15, 2003 at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel in Honolulu, Hawaii. This
meeting was sponsored by the U.S. Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC), the U.S.
Office of Naval Research (ONR), SACLANT Undersea Research Centre (Italy), Yale
University (U.S.A.), Boston University (U.S.A.), Columbia University (U.S.A.),
University of Colorado (U.S.A.), University of Hawaii (U.S.A.), School of Ocean and
Earth Science and Technology (U.S.A.), National Taiwan University (China), Istituto
Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale (Italy), Hangzhou Applied
Acoustics Research Insitute (China), and the Key Laboratory of Geophysical Exploration
(CNPC, China).
The objective of this conference was to provide a forum for active researchers to
discuss state-of-the-art developments and results in theoretical and computational acoustics
and related topics. It brought together researchers from numerous areas of science to exchange
ideas and stimulate future research. The website is located at: www.ictca2003.com.
Approximately one hundred scholars, scientists, and engineers from numerous
countries participated in this event. The presented lectures examined topics in Underwater
Acoustics, Mathematics, Scattering and Diffraction, Seismic Explorations, Boundary
Element Methods, Applications to the Oil Industry, Visualization, Shallow Water
Acoustics, Matched Field Tracking and Processing, Bubbles, Waves in Complex Media,
Seabed Interactions, and Ocean Acoustic Inversion. There were also three special sessions
on the Parabolic Equation (PE) devoted to the work and memory of Professor Fred Tappert
of Miami University (recently deceased).
The conference committee wishes to particularly thank Dr. Ding Lee (NUWC and
Yale University) as the founder and Honorary Chair of the conference. Dr. Lee continues to
organize much of these meetings and to set the tone for their continued success. Other
Honorary Chairs included Profs. John E. Ffows Williams and Martin Schultz. Special Thanks
also go to Prof. Allan Robinson as keynote speaker with the presentation “Prediction
systems with data assimilation for coupled ocean science and ocean acoustics”.
The special sessions were of particular interest, and we gratefully acknowledge
Drs. Michael Taroudakis, Finn Jensen and Lan Nghiem-Phu for the PE sessions which
included technical as well as personal presentations on Dr. Tappert. Additionally, there were
Drs. G. Herman and J. Carcione, S. Marburg and B. Nolte, Y.C. Teng, K. Lima, W. Carey,
D.B. Maxwell, P.A. Baxley, L. Bjorno and D. Bradley, and G. Seriani with N. Saffari.
We look forward to the seventh meeting scheduled in 2005 for Hangzhou, China,
and the eighth in 2007 for Iraklion, Crete.