With less than a month before the Institute of Acoustics’ 26th Reproduced Sound conference, Anna Mitchell gets to know the current president of the organisation, Professor Trevor Cox.
What do you get if you cross a chemist with a botanist? Answer: apparently, a leading acoustician. Professor Trevor Cox, the current president of the Institute of Acoustics and a physics graduate turned acoustic expert, attributes his journey into scientific study to the passion his parents showed in their aforementioned careers.
“I was interested in science. I was also a musician, which I think is true of a lot of people that end up in [the] audio [industry],” adds Professor Cox. “I managed to combine my interests by following my degree in Physics with a PhD, at the UK’s Salford University, in room acoustics.”
After his PhD studies the professor lectured at London South Bank University before returning to Salford University where he is now Professor of Acoustic Engineering.
Professor Cox became president of the Institute of Acoustics (IOA) in July this year and is passionate about the organisation that ensures acoustic practice in the UK is carried out to the highest possible standard. “The Institute makes sure that design work in acoustics is done to a certain quality,” he explains. “Part of that is having a membership of high quality. So it’s partly about checking and validating who becomes a member and what the qualification is. It’s also about improving the knowledge of our members by holding conferences and providing technical articles, which bring the knowledge of our members up to date.
“Furthermore, the IOA is an engineering institution so of course we handle all the registration under law. This covers aspects such as CEng registration so when people become chartered engineers they have to demonstrate their competence and skills.”
The presidency of the IOA runs for two years but is actually a six-year undertaking. “So it’s a six-year job,” explains the Professor. “But, the two years [as president] is the intensive bit.” Presidency is nominated and voted for by the IOA council. “We have a professional staff that run the organisation. We also have a hierarchical management structure, which at the top has the ruling council. It is drawn from ordinary members and members of committees who make decisions on the running of the institute. The head of the council is the president.
“A certain amount of my job is just continuation of what the society does, because actually the Institute does a very good job at the moment so it’s not like there is a radical overhaul needed. There’s a lot of uncertainty at the moment because of the economic situation. We are financially stable and solvent but there is obviously the concern with the recession of how this might affect the Institute in terms of things like membership and numbers of people attending conferences.”
Professor Cox hopes his high profile in the media will help promote the IOA. “The media like to badge me as the Institute of Acoustics,” he notes. “It’s interesting because I don’t tend to sell [the presidency] very hard but [the media] want to give [my title] a high profile because they believe it’s a sign of how good the author is.”
He does say he wants to lead the Institute to be more proactive in deciding where it’s going. “We tend to be a bit reactive,” he argues. “I think we need to be more proactive in terms of setting goals and work out how we’re getting to those rather than just seeing what happens and reacting.”
Reproduced Sound, which will be held in Cardiff, Wales, November 18 to 19 this year, is the Institute’s popular annual event and one Professor Cox describes as a “unique conference”. He continues: “It’s been running for 25 years now and it’s a unique format that brings together practitioners and academics. Lots of conferences are very academic and it’s unusual to have the two fields working together. It has a really nice feel to it and I think its longevity is testament to its success. Year on year it brings people in; they say they can’t wait for the next year and the programme fills up quickly. People want to talk at it, people sign up for it quickly. That’s all evidence that it’s a really successful conference series.”
In addition to his work as IOA president, Professor Cox is still highly active in research as part of his role at the University of Salford, UK. He’s proved a lucrative asset to the Greater Manchester University having won multiple grants from the Engineering and Physical Research Council (EPSRC).
The EPSRC is one of a number of UK councils that provides government money for University research. Professor Cox believes that due to cutbacks these will soon be amalgamated into one. But, right now, the EPSRC invests more than £850 million (€1,000 million) a year on a competitive bid basis.
“You submit your bid and it’s considered by referees from the council. It’s very difficult to get funding as there’s some tough competition. I’ve been very lucky to have quite a few grants from them for research and public engagement,” explains the professor.
“One we’re currently working on, with the Institute of Education at London South Bank, looks into acoustics in secondary schools. We’re basically trying to find out if the current standards for schools are correct. There’s been a lot of schools built in Britain recently but not all of them function well acoustically.”
Schools have specifications for new buildings and regulations state that certain criteria be met in terms of acoustic performance of buildings. “The problem is there’s lots of questions about what those specifications actually are,” points out the professor. “And there are lots of arguments. In particular architects like to argue that the regulations are too strict and eventually try and side-step them. So one of the things we’re trying to do is provide better evidence to prove that the current guidance is correct or perhaps change it to provide stronger evidence that it’s necessary to adhere to standards.”
The professor says his biggest thrill comes from designing something that actually gets used in a practical application. “Because I’m an engineer the things I do should make a difference to peoples’ lives not be written in scientific papers that no one reads,” he says. He’s certainly achieved that aim. His interest in surface diffusers, that started with his PhD, has propelled his work into practical applications around the world.
“Surface diffusers are used in places like studios to disperse sound,” he explains. “I’ve designed numerous passive devices over the years and have been involved in many projects where these devices are used in a variety of concert halls, theatres and spaces where music or speech is important.”