University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa mechanical engineering Professor John S. Allen has been elected into the Acoustical Society of America’s (ASA) College of Fellows for his outstanding contributions to the understanding of ultrasound contrast agents. Ultrasound contrast agents are encapsulated microbubbles used in diagnostic and therapeutic ultrasound.
Allen has been involved in their research since his post-doctoral studies in the U.S. and Japan. Since joining UH, he has been part of National Institutes of Health funded research with the Riverside Research Institute and New York University Medical School on their use for high frequency ultrasound imaging.
Allen will represent Hawaiʻi in this prestigious organization and receive the certificate at the 174th Meeting of the Society in New Orleans. ASA is involved in studying the measurements and effects of noise for the purpose of improving the human environment. With approximately 7,000 members from around the world, ASA includes researchers from various fields related to sound including physics, electrical, mechanical and aeronautical engineering, oceanography, biology, physiology, psychology, architecture, speech, noise and music.
“I’m grateful and appreciative for this honor from the ASA,” said Allen. “Ironically, in high school, my piano teacher told me I had the hallmarks of a professional musician except that I lacked any sense of rhythm. I have since focused on the scientific aspects of sound, but still have a deep appreciation of music.”
More on John S. Allen
In his 13 years at UH Mānoa, Allen has developed productive research collaborations with world-class acousticians across the United States and abroad. Allen has advised dozens of undergraduate and graduate students and published numerous journal articles in medical ultrasound and other areas of acoustics. His previous research in medical ultrasound has been translated to clinical practice. He has active collaborations with start-up companies such Advanced Microbubble Laboratories to assist in the development of targeted ultrasound contrast agents for molecular imaging and drug delivery.
Allen did his undergraduate studies at Princeton University and his doctoral studies at the University of Washington with co-advisors in both Mechanical and Bioengineering Departments. He studied at the Third Physical Institute at the University of Göttingen in Germany on a German Academic Exchange Service graduate student fellowship and at the University of Tokyo on a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science postdoctoral fellowship.
—By Dyan Kleckner
