member societies

The Belgian Acoustical Association (A.B.A.V.)
Prepared for Noise/News International, 2001 September

The Belgian Acoustical Association (ABAV), was founded in 1966 as a national non-profit association, consisting of persons from universities, research laboratories, engineering firms, and industry who are active in the field of acoustics. Specialities in which members are interested include physical acoustics, noise control engineering, building acoustics, room acoustics, environmental protection, electro-acoustics, and worker health. The association has a membership of some 150 individual members and 50 sustaining members.

The Belgian Acoustical Association has the following objectives:

To offer Belgian acousticians from all disciplines the opportunity to exchange scientific information,
to establish and maintain close relationships with similar foreign and international associations,
to collect and disseminate scientific information on acoustics in the broadest sense among its members by means of conferences, colloquia, round tables, courses, etc., and, in general,
to take measures contributing to the development and promotion of the science, practice and legislation of acoustics.
The ABAV is a member society of the European Acoustics Association.

As part of the membership all members receive the CD-edition of the journal Acta Acustica and the I-INCE journal Noise News International.

In addition to the organization of one- day meetings, round tables, courses, and visits to industries, the association organizes international conferences- sometimes in collaboration with acoustical societies from other countries.

In 1965, the year preceding the formation of ABAV, the 5th International Congress on Acoustics was organized in Liege. About 1,500 scientists participated and 500 papers were presented. In 1973, also in Liege, a FASA Symposium was organized on "Speech Intelligibility." Several symposia and meetings have been jointly organized with the French Acoustical Society, SFA (formerly GALF) and the Acoustical Society of the Netherlands, NAG.

Since 1973, the Belgian Acoustical Association has organized, in collaboration with the Acoustical Society of the Netherlands and the Royal Flemish Society of Engineers, the well-known Advanced Course in Acoustics. Up to now more than 1,800 participants have attended this course. This year the course will be given for the 28th time.

In the last decade the ABAV also organized two major international events.

First there was the successful organization of INTER-NOISE 93, the 22nd International Congress on Noise Control Engineering, at the Catholic University of Leuven. The second was the organization of the First Forum Acusticum Conference of the European Acoustics Association in 1996 on the campus of the Antwerp University-again jointly with the Royal Flemish Society.

This coming year several board members will be involved in the organization of the 2002 Conference of the Societe Francaise d’Acoustique (SFA) which will be held in Lille, France on 8-11 April 2002.

For further information on the activities of the Belgian Acoustical Association, contact D. Soubrier, WTCB/CSTC, Mlle C. Godard, av. P. Holoffe 21, B-1342 Limelette, Belgium.

FAX: +32 2 653 0729, e-mail: Daniel.Soubrier@bbri.be. The Association has a home page on the Internet at

http://www.ABAV.be

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