Council is the governing body of the Institute and meets four times a year. Council comprises the members of Executive committee, three Vice Presidents (Groups Branches, International Affairs and Engineering Division) and nine elected ordinary members. In addition, there are two young members’ representatives who serve overlapping two year terms. The chairmen of the committees are also invited to attend Council meetings to provide reports of their areas of activity. The period of time that anyone can serve on Council is limited and elections take place at the Annual General Meeting. We seek to ensure that there is as wide as possible representation on Council, but if you feel that your area of acoustics does not have a voice, why not consider standing for election?
Council members 2020/21
President – Stephen Turner
Stephen has worked in the field of acoustics, noise and vibration for over 42 years in both the public and private sector. He has worked on a wide range of environmental and building acoustics projects, including noise from aviation, highways, railways and construction. He has prepared and presented evidence for Public Inquiries, litigation and Parliamentary Select Committees. For 15 years he was a technical advisor to the noise policy officials at Defra and its predecessors, including four years as a Civil Servant until 2015. Work included providing technical input to a wide range of specific and strategic policy issues, including briefing Ministers, liaising with Other Government Departments, Local Authorities, the European Commission and the European Environment Agency. In addition, he had a close involvement in the drafting of the Noise Policy Statement for England (NPSE); the noise elements of National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), and the Planning Practice Guidance on noise (PPG(N). More recently, he has been mainly involved in providing independent peer review for major infrastructure projects and Government research. He is a member of the European Commission’s Noise Expert Group and the European Environment Agency’s Expert Panel on Noise. He sits on several British Standards Committees and chairs the BSI committee on transportation noise. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Institute and a Director of Stephen Turner Acoustics Limited.
Past President – Prof Barry Gibbs
Barry is Professorial Fellow within the Acoustics Research Unit of the University of Liverpool School of Architecture. His main research interest is structure-borne sound, particularly the development of measurement procedures and predictions in building acoustics. He has published over 90 journal papers and 200 conference papers. He was founding Editor of the journal Building Acoustics, now into its third decade. He has been Keynote Speaker at conferences in the USA, Brazil, Hong Kong, Singapore and the U.K. He is a Fellow of the IOA, of the Acoustical Society of America, and of IIAV (International Institute of Acoustics and Vibration). He is Distinguished International Member of the Institute of Noise Control Engineering of the USA. He was President of IIAV in 2002-2004. In 2015, he was awarded the IOA R W Stephens Medal for acoustics research and education. He was President of the IOA in 2018-20.
President Elect – Alistair Somerville
Alistair has a professional background in Environmental Health and developed a special interest in acoustics whilst working in Edinburgh Council’s Noise Team. He joined our Institute as an Associate in 1984, became a Corporate Member in 1988 and was awarded an Honorary Fellowship in 2016. He is also the 2002 Past-President of the Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland.
In Environmental Health he has managed the Noise, Planning, Food Safety, Health & Safety and Private Rented Services functions. As a part-time lecturer at Heriot Watt University he wrote and delivered their MSc Environmental Noise & Vibration module and delivered Acoustics modules for Mechanical and Building Services Engineering degrees.
He set up the first Scottish IOA Diploma Distance Learning Centre and brought the Environmental Noise Measurement Certificate course to Scotland.
Since 2013 he has operated as a self-employed acoustic consultant and lecturer/trainer. Outside of acoustics, he enjoys golf and ‘fiddling’ on guitar.
Honorary Secretary – Fiona Rogerson
Fiona is a Senior Acoustic Consultant with Arup in their Midlands’ office. Prior to joining Arup in 2017, she was a Principal Consultant at Atkins, where she managed the Birmingham team. Fiona’s focus is on environmental acoustics with a particular interest in road and rail but her experience includes a wide range of acoustics projects including industrial, mixed use development and building acoustics. Fiona has a strong interest in people and their development. She is currently mentoring champion for the Arup Acoustics team and earlier on in her career she took time out to become a secondary school Physics teacher for a number of years.
Fiona has been a member of the IOA Midlands Branch committee since 2013, becoming Secretary in 2014 and Chair in 2018. Fiona joined the IOA Executive committee in 2020 as Honorary Secretary.
Honorary Treasurer - Dr Martin Lester
Martin studied Acoustics within a Degree in Applied Physics at Liverpool Poly between ‘81 and ’85, undertook research in acoustics between ’85 and ’88, and Post-Doc research at Liverpool Uni in ’89. Since then I’ve been involved in Acoustics Consultancy including SRL, NES, RPS and as Lester Acoustics (since 2000), being based in Northern Ireland since 1997.
Within the IOA, I gained Membership of IOA in ’88, and was on the North-West Branch Committee between roughly 1986-97 (including the role of Honorary Treasurer for a while). During this time I also assisted with registration, minibus driving, and projector operator at many of the IOA one day and larger conferences. In ’97 I became a Registered Chartered Engineer through the IOA
Vice President Groups and Branches – Graham Parry
Graham is a Fellow and Vice-President of the Institute of Acoustics. He is also the President of the Association of Noise Consultants. He is the Managing Director of ACCON UK Limited.
Graham has carried out environmental work in the transportation, commercial, mining, petrochemical and architectural fields both within the UK and internationally for almost 50 years. He has experience both within Local Government and consultancy and has carried out a large number of research projects for Defra and its predecessors. He has presented expert evidence at Public Inquiry and also at Select Committee in respect of HS1 & HS2. He was a member of the Mitchell Committee which developed 'New Railway Noise Standards' and was involved in framing the railway noise legislation and the development of a railway noise prediction methodology. He was the joint writer of the IEMA ‘Noise Impact Assessment Guidelines, 2014’.
Vice President Engineering – James Hill
James graduated from the University of Salford with a BSc in Acoustics in 2008. He spent 11 years as an acoustic specialist at AAF Ltd working in Power Generation, Oil and Gas and Environmental noise. In 2020 James moved to Apex Acoustics to take up a consultancy role. He has published journal and conference papers in his specialist area of duct acoustics. James has sat on both the publication and engineering committees before more recently becoming Chair of the Engineering Committee and an IOA diploma examiner for the NVCE module.
Vice President International – Dr Paul Lepper
Paul is a Reader at Loughborough University specializing in under water acoustics and marine and terrestrial bio-acoustics with over 30 years’ experience of research into the physical and biological aspects of underwater acoustics in particular potential impacts from underwater sound for a wide range of industries including offshore renewables, aquaculture, etc. This has included studies on the hearing and behavioural response of marine mammals and fish as well as source characterisation, sound field measurement and acoustic modelling. Current research areas include noise and mitigation from UXO clearance operations and use of aerial drone technology in marine impact assessment including underwater acoustics. He heads up underwater acoustics research at Loughborough University. He is a member of the IOA's Underwater Acoustic Group and has served on and off of Council since 2014. He is currently Vice President International for Council and General Secretary of the European Acoustical Association (EAA).
Ordinary Members
Prof Chris Barlow
Chris is Professor of Acoustics in the School of Media Arts and Technology at Solent University, Southampton, and led the development of acoustics as a new discipline at Solent. Having originally worked in the music industry as a recording engineer, he moved into Acoustics for a PhD in voice analysis. He has worked in the university sector for 20 years teaching and researching audio engineering and acoustics, most recently focusing on soundscaping and immersive audio. He is also a Director of Positive Acoustics Ltd, an independent acoustics consultancy. Chris has been a member of the IoA Southern Branch committee since 2014 and a member of IoA Council since 2019. He is currently the chair of the IoA Education and Learning working group. He is also chair of the Audio Engineering Society South of England Group and has previously served on the AES UK executive committee.
Dr Benjamin Fenech
Benjamin has 16 years’ experience working in the field of acoustics, split between academia, private and public sectors. He currently leads the noise and public health group at Public Health England. He has delivered specialist advice on the health effects of noise to a broad range of stakeholders, including the WHO, MPs, Chief Medical Officer and NIHR. Prior to joining PHE Benjamin worked as an acoustic consultant at Arup, where he led on several workstreams in relation to large infrastructure projects. At the University of Southampton, Ben carried out aeroacoustic measurements in wind tunnels using state-of-the-art microphone array technology developed as part of his PhD.
Benjamin sits on two BSI technical committees; and is a UK Expert on ISO/TC 43/SC1/WG42. He is active in both shaping and collaborating on research, and currently chairs a steering board for two research projects on aviation noise and health having a combined value of £1M.
Chris Hurst
Chris is a Chartered Environmental Health Practitioner (CEnvH), Member of the Institute of Acoustics (MIOA), and Associate Member of the Institute of Licensing (AMIOL) and has over 25 years’ experience in environmental regulatory control including environmental noise assessment and the application of a wide range of regulatory provisions.
Chris is one of the co-developers of the noise app which is now used by over 250 local authorities and housing associations. https://www.thenoiseapp.com and has been part of national working parties regarding guidance on noise control from places of entertainment, outdoor concerts, control of noise from fitness and exercises spaces, professional practice guidance on planning & noise and retiming of deliveries for TFL, which won a John Connell award in 2018. After 14 years at LB Richmond, Chris left local authority employment to concentrate on Three Spires Acoustics, which provides event noise control services for some of the largest festivals and most prestigious venues in the UK, as well as providing expert witness services covering a number of regulatory regimes.
Chris is still however passionate about promoting the key skills that Local Authority Environmental Health Practitioners bring to the acoustics profession, and is now also working in conjunction with E-learning platforms to provide tailored noise assessment and control training solutions for EHP’s in a number of key areas.
Dr Keith Holland
Keith Holland is Associate Professor at the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research (ISVR) at the University of Southampton, where he has studied and worked continuously since 1984. His current research interests include audio, loudspeaker technology and advanced acoustical measurement techniques. He is a founder-member of the Rolls-Royce UTC in Gas Turbine Noise within ISVR, responsible for research into advanced combustion noise measurement techniques.
Beyond the University, Keith is actively involved in the IOA, where he serves on Council and is Chair of the Electroacoustics Group. He is co-author of editions 1 and 2 of the book “Loudspeakers for Music Recording and Reproduction” with Philip Newell, with whom he has collaborated on numerous audio projects for over 30 years. He received his BSc degree in Engineering Acoustics and Vibration from ISVR in 1987 and his PhD for a thesis on horn loudspeakers in 1993 from the same Institute.
Angela Lamacraft
Angela is an acoustic consultant, mainly specialising in environmental and industrial acoustics within the retail, commercial and residential sectors. She has also project managed acoustics projects and multi-disciplinary ones. Angela has worked on very small projects (such as preparation of Noise Impact Assessments for single dwellings) and very large ones (such as providing construction noise and vibration advice for aspects of national infrastructure projects). She states that some of the most interesting projects she has worked on include prediction of vibration from mining activities; noise from a hydropower scheme in the river Thames; and large mixed-use developments in challenging environments.
Angela is passionate about helping the IOA stay relevant to members, believing that we all benefit from the unique ideas that a diverse active membership brings. As a working mum she is also keen to explore ways the IOA can help working parents find a good balance between their home life and their career.
Reena Mahtani
Reena is a Senior Engineer at Sandy Brown Associates in London. She has a background in Telecommunications Engineering from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in Spain and an MSc in Environmental Acoustics from the University of Salford. Reena has over 10 years of experience in acoustics. Her career started with a short stint in Singapore, mostly focused on building acoustics. On her return to the UK, she has worked on acoustic design of different types of spaces, environmental and construction noise and vibration assessments, occupational noise and vibration, noise control and sound insulation testing.
Her specialisms are residential buildings and schools and has a particular interest on the study and application of soundscapes. She is also the Secretary of the Southern Branch of the IOA, a member of the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) and an Incorporated Engineer (IEng).
Dr Hardial Sagoo
Hardial graduated from the University of Bath and joined Leyland Cars at Longbridge on a Graduate Training Scheme. Here he completed a specialist course on Noise, Vibration & Harshness in Vehicles run by Birmingham University. He then joined GKN at their Group Technological Centre and in 1980 he became a Chartered Engineer and a Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. At GKN he worked on the forefront of digital signals involving measurements in lab and in vehicles in service, and their analyses and researching for solutions to technical problems. After a serious hand injury he took on a challenge at Hoover to reduce noise levels of vacuum cleaners and to find methods suitable for mass production and this led to a PhD from Aston University. He became a member of the Institute of Acoustics in 1989.
Hardial has worked at Mott MacDonald, WS Atkins, Bureau Veritas and Hyder, specialising in transportation, environmental and industrial noise and vibration and groundborne vibration. After more than 20 years in large consultancies he became an independent consultant.
Vicky Stewart
Vicky has worked as an acoustic consultant at Atkins since 2001, when she joined an industrial placement student from the University of Salford. Her work mainly involves environmental noise assessments for large road schemes, both in the UK and the Middle East, and in 2019 Vicky was involved with her first Public Inquiry. In addition, Vicky is very passionate about inspiring young people into careers in Acoustics. She is the National STEM Coordinator for Atkins, and in 2016 she was given the Institute of Acoustics Award for Promoting Acoustics to the Public as well as being listed as being one of the Top 50 Women in Engineering, that same year. Vicky has been on the IOA Council for 4 years, and also sits on the IOA STEM Group.
Dr Yuyou Liu
Yuyou is a Chartered Acoustic Engineer with 20 years’ consulting and research experience working in the UK, Europe, and South East Asia. He obtained a PhD from the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research (ISVR) in 2004 and started working in acoustics consultancy. He has broad experience in environmental acoustics, building acoustics and vibration control, and has a successful track record in the roles of applied researcher, acoustic consultant, expert technical adviser and certified project manager. His recent interest and expertise are infrastructure acoustics.
Yuyou has been an active member of IOA since 2003 and has previously served the Measurement and Instrumentation Committee for 3 years. He is a member of the Membership Steering Committee of the Association of Noise Consultants (ANC). He is a a recognised author and reviewer of several international renowned acoustic journals including the Journal of Sound and Vibration.
