The University of New Hampshire is launching a center to study environmental acoustics, called the Center for Acoustics Research and Education (CARE).
UNH oceanographer Dr. Jennifer Miksis-Olds will direct the center, which includes UNH's College for Engineering and Physical Sciences, College for Living Sciences and Agriculture, and Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space.
Scientists across disciplines use sound waves to do everything from mapping the ocean floor, to identifying pests in agricultural crops, to echolocating swarms of fish and other species.
“You can have people at a large university not even knowing that there's another person in a different college doing acoustics," Miksis-Olds says. “So just to have that internal collaboration and networking is excellent.”
The center is in the early process of developing a graduate certificate program in acoustics, and plans to offer expertise to industry and government groups.