Ira Dyer at MIT—Professor, Department Head, and Arctic pioneer

Abstract

Ira arrived at MIT in 1970 from BBN to take a professorship offered by Alfred Kyle, Head of the Department of Naval Architecture. He had said yes; however, Kyle surprised him and asked him to also head the department, renamed Ocean Engineering. With some trepidation he accepted. He started new research programs in ocean acoustics, ambient noise, reverberation and propagation while making seminal contributions. He became the director of the MIT Sea Grant Program and soon MIT was one of the first Sea Grant colleges. In 1977 Ira had the idea to research basin-scale reverberation. He thought the Mediterranean would be the ideal enclosed basin including opportunities for post-experiment R&R! He approached the Office of Naval Research, they enthusiastically agreed, and sent him to the Arctic! That detour north turned into a super highway of decades of Arctic acoustics research from a controversial seamount discovery in his first reverberation experiment, detailed morphology of ice cracking noise, propagation and ice scattering to global climate change. Ira will have lasting and enduring impact in acoustics through his contributions and through his many students and colleagues that had the great privilege and joy to learn from, know, and work with Ira.