Leo Beranek

Leo Leroy Beranek (September 15, 1914 – October 10, 2016) was an American acoustician, former MIT professor, and a founder and former president of Bolt, Beranek and Newman (now BBN Technologies). He authored Acoustics, considered a classic textbook in this field, and its updated and extended version published in 2012 under the title Acoustics: Sound Fields and Transducers. He was also an expert in the design and evaluation of concert halls and opera houses, and authored the classic textbook Music, Acoustics, and Architecture, revised and extended in 2004 under the title Concert Halls and Opera Houses: Music, Acoustics, and Architecture.

Early life and education Beranek was born in 1914, in Solon, Iowa. His father Edward Fred Beranek was a farmer whose ancestors came from Bohemia (in what is now the Czech Republic) and his mother Beatrice Stahle, previously a schoolteacher, had become a farmwife. Edward's paternal grandparents Josef Beránek and Anna Šimandlová were from Nynice and Jarov respectively.

Beranek first started school in a one-room schoolhouse in Tipton, Iowa. After his first year, he rode in a horse-drawn school bus on a two-hour trip to a somewhat larger school. In 1922 his family moved back to Solon, where he was soon skipped over third grade and moved directly into fourth grade classes.

Beranek joined the staff at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as professor of communications engineering from 1947 to 1958. In 1948, he helped found Bolt, Beranek and Newman (BBN), serving as the company's president from 1952 to 1969. He continued to serve as chief scientist of BBN through 1971, as he led Boston Broadcasters, Inc. which (after a court battle) took control of television station WCVB-TV.

Beranek's 1954 book, Acoustics, is considered the classic textbook in this field; it was revised in 1986. In 2012, at the age of 98, he collaborated with Tim Mellow to produce an updated and extended revision, published under the new title Acoustics: Sound Fields and Transducers. His famous humorous adage was "Beranek's Law", about the psychological effect of somebody's own design in comparison to other designs.

Beranek's 1962 book, Music, Acoustics, and Architecture, developed from his analysis of 55 concert halls throughout the world, also became a classic; the 2004 edition of the text expanded the study to 100 halls. Beranek participated in the design of numerous concert halls and opera houses, and traveled worldwide to conduct research and enjoy musical performances.

From 1983 to 1986, Beranek was chairman of the board of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, where he remained a Life Trustee. The Beranek Room at the Symphony Hall is named after him. He also served on the MIT Council for the Arts, "an international volunteer group of alumni and friends established to support the arts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology". In 2008 he published Riding the Waves : A Life in Sound, Science, and Industry, an autobiography about his lengthy career and research in sound and music. He turned 100 in September 2014, an occasion marked by a special celebration at Boston Symphony Hall. The Leo and Gabriella Beranek Scholarship in Architectural Acoustics and Noise Control was established in 2016 to support graduate study in the fields of architectural acoustics and noise control. Beranek died on October 10, 2016, at the age of 102. His last paper, "Concert hall acoustics: Recent findings", had been published earlier that year. Personal life and death Beranek died in 2016 in Westwood, Massachusetts age 102. Awards and honors Fellow of the American Physical Society (1946) Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1952) In addition to being made a fellow of the American Academy of Arts, he also served as the president of the organization from 1989-1994 Wallace Clement Sabine Medal of the Acoustical Society of America (1961) for internationally recognized achievements in all phases of architectural acoustics, and his publications on acoustical measurements, and the world's great concert halls. Gold Medal of the Audio Engineering Society (1971) Gold Medal from the Acoustical Society of America (1975) for leadership in developing, in the United States and abroad, the desire and the capability for achieving good acoustics in communications, workplaces, concert halls, and communities. National Medal of Science in Engineering (2002) IEEE Founders Medal (2013) Rayleigh Medal of the Institute of Acoustics, United Kingdom (2014) Technical Grammy Award (2025) Grammy Special Merit Award (autobiography)