MS 337 Papers of Dr Raymond Stephens and the British Acoustical Society

Dr Raymond Stephens

Dr Raymond W.B.Stephens (1902-90) was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, but spent most of his childhood in London. Stephens attended Imperial College, London, graduating in physics in 1924. The following year he was appointed a demonstrator in the Physics Department at Imperial College, an institution with which he was associated for the next forty five years. He obtained his PhD in 1934, became a Reader of Acoustics at Imperial in 1959, retiring in 1970. On his retirement from Imperial College, Stephens was a Visiting Professor at the University of Houston for a year.

Stephens established the Acoustics Research Group and over three decades, at Imperial and at Chelsea College, dozens of students undertook research work under his supervision. This research group could be said to be one of his significant contributions to the field of acoustics.

He was a founder member of the Acoustics Group of the Physical Society, the British Society of Audiology and the British Acoustical Society, as well as first President of the Institute of Acoustics. Stephens was also the author, co-author or editor of six books, including Sound and the textbook Acoustics and Vibrational Physics (1966). He was the English-language editor of the Acustica periodical.

About the collection

The archive includes: correspondence; papers relating to Dr Stephens’ university education and academic career at Chelsea Polytechnic and Imperial College, London; research papers; papers relating to the British Acoustical Society, 1965-74, and the Institute of Acoustics, 1982.

Date range:

1920-84

Former references:

A2047

Size:

9 boxes