Reflections of Kim Benjamin as a student, professional colleague, and personal friend

Abstract

Kim was a very special person who I was privileged to know as a student, professional colleague, and a close personal friend. After completing his undergraduate degree in Physics at URI in 1975, he was accepted into the Masters Program in Ocean Engineering at the University of Rhode Island where I served as his advisor and major professor. While working on an NIH grant to develop two-dimensional planar arrays of ultrasonic transducers for medical diagnostic purposes, Kim developed his lifelong passion for acoustic transducers. Some of his early “experiences with transducers” will be shared in the presentation. During this time period, Kim also investigated and developed the use of FFT methods for the backward projection of acoustic fields from planar sources. His early contributions in this area laid the foundation for much of the subsequent acoustical holographic work by others over the following several decades and will be briefly reviewed. In the 1980s and 1990, it was clear that Kim was becoming a “transducer guru” as evidenced by his research, reports, and related ASA presentations. I will share some recollections of Kim from this period and our many “extended lunches” during the last several years.