Acoustician Thomas D. Rossing passes

[Dave Cohen]

Some sad news to report. Physicist and acoustician Thomas D. Rossing ("Tom") has passed. Got the news from one of his later grad students, Andy Morrison. Tom was a professor of physics first at Luther College, then at Northern Illinois University, and finally part-time at Stanford University and the CCRMA (= Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics). He worked first in magnetism and condensed matter. Then driven by his love of music, he shifted to musical acoustics. He was an ASA (Acoustical Society of America) Fellow, silver medalist, AND Gold medalist. He was an authority on bells, steel drums, and other percussion instruments, but also on string instruments - both bowed and plucked. He was a teacher, mentor, and collaborator to many, including John Popp, Graham Caldersmith, Gila Eban, Jim Rae, Andres Peekna, myself, and many others. Many scientists with an interest in musical instruments spent enjoyable time in his labs at NIU and Stanford. He will be missed by many, including myself.

[Dave Cohen]

Correction: Tom's first teaching Job was at St Olaf College, after working at Univac.

[Mark Gunter]

Sorry to hear this. May he rest in peace, and may his colleagues and students carry on his studies.

[sunburst]

A loss to those of us who want to know how musical instruments do what they do. I never met him but still feel like I learned a great deal from his pioneering application of science to musical instruments.

[rmmottola]

I just came across this in passing and thank Dave for posting it. An academic with impeccable credentials, Thomas Rossing's musical acoustics books trended toward more and more generally accessible work. In the few interactions I had with him within the last few years he seemed most interested in figuring out ways to make musical acoustics understandable to as wide an audience as possible. What a noble and challenging goal! His early book The Physics of Musical Instruments, written with Neville Fletcher, stands as the reference textbook on the subject, but it is a highly technical work. A later work, The Science of String Instruments is far more generally accessible in my opinion. Readers here should know that the chapter in that book on the acoustics of mandolin family instruments was written by Dave Cohen.