The Acoustical Society of America (ASA) has selected Shima H. Abadi, University alumna, to receive the Best Paper Award in Animal Bioacoustics for 2013.
ASA is an international and scientific society, which promotes knowledge in the field of acoustics and its applications. Historically, the society has contributed to the standardization of acoustics terminology and measurements and publishes the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. Each year, it distributes best paper awards in each of its thirteen technical committees, one of them being Animal Bioacoustics. In order to be eligible to win a Best Paper Award, the student must have presented their findings at a society meeting. The Animal Bioacoustics sector of the society focuses mainly on animal communication, instrumental sonar, auditory capacities of animals, and the effect of human noise on animals.
Abadi presented her paper titled, “Comparison of remote ranging techniques for bowhead whale calls in a dispersive underwater sound,” at the 166th annual ASA meeting, which was held this past December in San Francisco. Later, in January, she received a congratulatory message from the Animal Bioacoustics Technical Committee Chair of the society, informing her of her first place prize in that section’s competition.
After receiving her Bachelors Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Tehran, Abadi entered the University, where she pursued a Masters in both Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mathematics. In the summer of 2013, after spending five years with the department, she completed her PhD in Mechanical Engineering.
Presently, Abadi is pursuing post-doctoral research at both the University of Washington and Columbia University. Her research interests include acoustics, array signal processing, animal bioacoustics, and fluid dynamics. Her PhD dissertation titled, “Blind deconvolution in multipath environments and extensions to remote source localization” can be read here.