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Memorial Tributes Volume 23 (2021) / Chapter Skim
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RICHARD H. LYON
Pages 190-195

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From page 191...
... He initially tried to enlist in the Navy's Electronics Technician School but failed its color vision test; instead he built audio systems, repaired radios, and worked at a local radio station throughout his college years. He went to graduate school in the MIT Physics Department, where he received his PhD in 1955, performing thesis research on the turbulent excitation of strings under the direction of K
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From page 192...
... Upon returning to the United States in 1960, he joined Bolt Beranek and Newman in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he worked on problems of sound-structure interaction, excitation of structures by turbulence, and a variety of other consulting and research projects, eventually becoming director of the Physical Sciences Division and corporate vice president. He maintained his technical skills and made significant contributions to the field while managing a BBN division that grew significantly in size under his leadership.
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From page 193...
... He was a key developer of the method of statistical energy analysis, which treats vibratory energy as a form of thermal energy and takes advantage of this similarity to find simple relationships that enable prediction and interpretation of the spatial distribution of the energy in a structure and the surrounding fluid. In recent years he extended this effort to analysis of the phase of vibratory signals, called statistical phase analysis, which has application to machine diagnostics and signal dereverbera­tion in telephony and other areas.
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From page 194...
... Elected to the NAE in 1995, Dick's interests spanned more than half of its disciplinary sections. He served on the authoring committee that produced the consensus report Technology for a Quieter America (National Academies Press, 2010)
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From page 195...
... Dick is survived by his wife of 53 years, Jean Wheaton Lyon; children Katherine Lyon Davis (John) , Geoffrey Cleveland Lyon (Jen)
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Key Terms

  • energy analysis
  • lyon corp
  • product sound
  • noise control
  • sound quality

  • gold medal
  • acoustical society
  • machine diagnostics
  • complex structures
  • electrical engineering

  • signal processing
  • surrounding fluid
  • vibration lab
  • bring context
  • transient forces

  • actual product
  • evaluating product
  • mechanical engineers
  • spanning acoustical
  • engineering faculty

  • technical reports
  • wrote five
  • control technology
  • enable prediction
  • control engineering

  • key developer
  • joined bolt
  • product design
  • processing techniques
  • utive council


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