Institute of Acoustics (United Kingdom)

The Institute of Acoustics (IOA) is a British professional engineering institution founded in 1974. It is licensed by the Engineering Council UK to assess candidates for inclusion on ECUK's Register of professional Engineers. The institute's address is Silbury Court, 406 Silbury Boulevard, Milton Keynes MK9 2AF, United Kingdom. The current president of the IOA is Barry Gibbs. Past presidents include John Hinton OBE, Colin English, David Weston, Tony Jones, Professor Trevor Cox, William Egan, Professor Bridget Shield, and Jo Webb.

History

In 1963 a Society of Acoustic Technology was formed in the UK for those interested in this subject: the President was Elfyn Richards.[1] Because of the interest in establishing a professional body, meetings were held with various societies and institutions, and in 1965 a British Acoustical Society was set up, absorbing the earlier society.[1] In 1974 the British Acoustical Society amalgamated with the Acoustics Group of the Institute of Physics to form the Institute of Acoustics.[2]
Specialist groups

Building acoustics
Electroacoustics
Environmental noise
Measurement and instrumentation
Musical acoustics
Noise and vibration engineering
Physical acoustics
Speech and hearing
Underwater acoustics

Medals and awards

The following prizes are awarded by the Institute

Rayleigh Medal
Tyndall Medal
A B Wood Medal
R W B Stephens Medal
IOA Engineering Medal
Honorary fellowship
Peter Barnett Memorial Award
The Award for Promoting Acoustics to the Public
Award for Services to the Institute
IOA Young Persons' Award for Innovation in Acoustical Engineering
IOA Prize for best diploma student
ANC prize for the best diploma project
ANC prize for the best paper at an IOA conference