Abstract:
When Professor Beyer taught us ultrasonics or nonlinear acoustics at Brown, he emphasized the historical genesis of scientific ideas and included insight into the works of greats like Rayleigh and connections to Lighthill. He personalized the science. His lectures on ``Radiation Pressure --- The History of a Mislabeled Tensor'' [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 63, 1025--1030 (1978)] are vintage Beyer. If our research topics were a canvas he would motivate the development of our creativity. If you asked him which color to use, you would get a philosophical story---but not which color. He provided guidance but the final brush strokes were yours. TKS and RTB's ``interaction of sound with noise'' (1978) featured the growth of sum and difference frequency sidebands that agreed with Westervelt. MSK and RTB's ``scattering of crossed ultrasonic beams in the presence of turbulence'' (1988) measured turbulent velocities. Some of Beyer's daily comments still ring through our minds ``Don't just stand there --- go write a thesis,'' or ``once a graduate student --- always a graduate student.'' However, at key talks, like our thesis defense his ``When you are on the goal line shoot straight up the middle and do not attempt a long forward pass,'' will always echo in our minds.