Russell Richardson is the new IOA Council Honorary Secretary. He succeeds Nigel Cogger who has stood down as a result of moving to France and retiring from the English Cogger Partnership.
Russell studied electro-acoustics at the University of Salford, graduating in 1995. After a few years of working in acoustics consultancy he returned to the academic world to undertake research into the subjective response of audiences in concert halls at London South Bank University.
In 2002 he founded the consultancy practice RBA Acoustics with Charles Bladon and Torben Andersen. The practice, an Institute sponsor member, is now one of the largest in the UK and continues to grow both in size and in its UK and international workload.
Russell sat on the board of the Association of Noise Consultants from 2006-2012, firstly as Secretary and thenTreasurer, during which time he collaborated with the IOA on the organisation of joint events. He has also sat on ANC committees covering school design and residential sound insulation, consultation panels for the BCSE and staffing committees for the IOA. Having spent many years contributing to various other professional bodies, he says he is looking forward to having the time to take a more active role for the IOA.
He continues to contribute to life at London South Bank University, lecturing on the environmental and architectural acoustics MSc course on both acoustics and business-related topics. RBA Acoustics has also sponsored a prize for the best project dissertation for several years.
