Acoustical imaging. Volume 24, [Proceedings of the Twenty-Fourth International Symposium, September 23-25, 1998

The International Symposium of Acoustical Imaging has been widely recognized as the premier forum for presentations of advanced research result in both theoretical and experimental development. Held regularly since 1968, the symposium brings together international leading researchers in the area of acoustical imaging. The proceedings from the 24th meeting contain articles on the following topics: Advanced Systems and Techniques, Microscopy and Nondestructive Evaluation, and Biomedical Applications. The International Symposium of Acoustical Imaging has been widely recognized as the premier forum for presentations of advanced research results in both theoretical and experimental development. Held regularly since 1968, the symposium brings together th leading international researchers in the area of acoustical imaging. The 24 meeting is the third time Santa Barbara hosted this international conference and it is the first time the meeting was held on the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara. As many regular participants noticed over the years, this symposium has grown significantly in size due to the quality of the presentations as well as the organization itself. A few years ago multiple and poster sessions were introduced in order to accommodate this growth. In addition, the length of the presentations was shortened so more papers could be included in the sessions. During recent meetings there were discussions regarding the possibility of returning to the wonderful years when the symposium was organized in one single session with sufficient time to allow for in-depth presentation as well as discussions of each paper. And the size of the meeting was small enough that people were able to engage in serious technical interactions and all attendees would fit into one photograph. In light of the constraints of the limited budget with respect to the escalating costs it was not considered feasible. The 26th lAIS was organized in the traditional way with only one addition-a Special Session "History of Acoustical Imaging" with the involvement of such well known scientists as Andrew Briggs, Noriyoshi Chubachi, Robert Green Jr., Joie Jones, Kenneth Erikson, and Bernhard Tittmann. A first realization of a synthetic aperture sonar has been related at the third Symposium of Acoustical Holography by Castella [1].