The Belgian Acoustical Association (ABAV)

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The Belgian Acoustical Society (ABAV) was founded in 1966 as a national society without the goal of making a profit. The society gathers all interested persons from universities, research laboratories, consulting offices, industry, governmental organizations . . . with activities in the field of acoustics in its broadest sense: physical acoustics, industrial noise control, building acoustics, environmental protection, electroacoustics, noise protection, etc. A list of past and future activities can be found on the society’s website:http://www.abav.be.

The ABAV board is composed of twelve active members: Dick Botteldooren (president), Dominique Pleeck (vice president), F. Verbandt (vice president), Debby Wuyts (secretary general), Peter Houtave (treasurer), Lieven De Geetere, Fabienne Duthoit, Bart Ingelaere, Jean Némerlin, Monika Rychtarikova, Jean-Jacques Embrechts, and Jean-Pierre Clairbois. So far, the board also counts five honorary presidents: Georges Pleeck (†), Andre Cops, Pierre Chapelle (†), Daniel Soubrier, and Gerrit Vermeir.

The society currently has 150 members (effective, associate, student, and honorary) and 66 supporting members.

The ABAV Society has the following goals:

  • to create a permanent working frame for information exchange between members emanating from any of the acoustical disciplines;
  • to collect, to exchange, and to disseminate information on all acoustics-related topics of concern for the society;
  • to create a forum for discussion and exchange about noise management, noise protection, and noise control in the interest of creating an acceptable and sustainable acoustical environment;
  • to contribute to the development and promotion of acoustics as a scientific discipline;
  • to establish strong links with similar national and international associations.

Within the ABAV, the nonprofit initiative Belgian Young Acousticians Network (B-YAN) was founded in 2013. Their primary goal is to establish a community for young researchers and young professionals in the field of acoustics—to connect them and to provide support. Today, the network consists of approximately 25 members and is addressed to any young acoustician (under 40 years old) in Belgium, including engineers, consultants, students, and researchers.

The Belgian Acoustical Association has been a member of International Institute for Noise Control Engineering (I-INCE) since 1979 and organized, in collaboration with the Royal Flemish Society of Engineers, the 22nd International Conference on Noise Control Engineering (“People versus Noise”) in Leuven in 1993 (INTER-NOISE ’93).

The Belgian Acoustical Association was one of the founding members of the European Acoustical Association (EAA) in 1993 and organized the first EAA Forum Acusticum in Antwerp in 1996. The Belgian Acoustical Association also collaborated with the Société Française d’Acoustique (SFA) for the successful organization of the 6th CFA (Congrès Français d’Acoustique) in 2002 at Lille, France. ABAV also organized the EuroNoise 2015 conference in Maastricht together with the Dutch Acoustical Society (NAG).

For further information on the activities of the Belgian Acoustical Association, contact Debby Wuyts (secretary) or Dick Botteldooren (president), Belgian Building Research Institute (BBRI), Avenue Pierre Holoffe 21, B-1342 Limelette, Belgium.

Tel: +32 2 655 77 11, e-mail:debby.wuyts@bbri.be
Online:http://www.abav.be