body{-webkit-animation:-amp-start 8s steps(1,end) 0s 1 normal both;-moz-animation:-amp-start 8s steps(1,end) 0s 1 normal both;-ms-animation:-amp-start 8s steps(1,end) 0s 1 normal both;animation:-amp-start 8s steps(1,end) 0s 1 normal both}@-webkit-keyframes -amp-start{from{visibility:hidden}to{visibility:visible}}@-moz-keyframes -amp-start{from{visibility:hidden}to{visibility:visible}}@-ms-keyframes -amp-start{from{visibility:hidden}to{visibility:visible}}@-o-keyframes -amp-start{from{visibility:hidden}to{visibility:visible}}@keyframes -amp-start{from{visibility:hidden}to{visibility:visible}} AIHA Members Honored for Accomplishments in Hearing… | AIHA
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March 3, 2022

AIHA Members Honored for Accomplishments in Hearing Conservation

In November 2021, the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) at North Carolina State University inducted Dennis Driscoll, PE (retired), FAIHA; Elliott Berger, MS, INCE Bd. Cert., FAIHA; and Larry H. Royster, PhD, into its Hall of Fame.

Driscoll is a current member and past chair of the AIHA Noise Committee. He also served as president of the National Hearing Conservation Association and was a member of the board of directors for the Council for Accreditation in Occupational Hearing Conservation (CAOHC). For 20 years, Driscoll participated as a voting member of American National Standards Institute (ANSI) committees on acoustics, mechanical vibration and shock, bioacoustics, and noise. Until his retirement in 2019, he had served for 30 years as founder, president, and principal consultant of Associates in Acoustics.

Berger helped develop and promote a line of foam earplugs for the E-A-R Division of Cabot Corporation, which was eventually acquired by 3M. Following his retirement from 3M in 2018, Berger founded Acoustical Consulting, LLC. A member and past chair of the AIHA Noise Committee, Berger chairs an ANSI working group on hearing protector attenuation. Previously, he served on a National Academy of Science committee on hearing loss in the military and on the CAOHC board of directors. He is a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award of the National Hearing Conservation Association (NHCA).

Julie Royster, Dennis Driscoll, and Elliott Berger at the induction ceremony for the North Carolina State University Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Hall of Fame, November 2021. Julie Royster accepted the award on behalf of her late husband, Larry.

A faculty member at MAE until his 2001 retirement, Royster was the graduate school and research advisor to both Driscoll and Berger. During Royster’s career, he helped OSHA and the North Carolina Department of Labor develop noise regulations. He is a past chair of the AIHA Noise Committee and served as an editor of, and author for, two editions of the AIHA Noise Manual. In 1997 he received AIHA’s Borden Award, the forerunner of the Distinguished Service to AIHA Award. A fellow of the Acoustical Society of America, he received ASA’s Silver Medal in Noise for his contributions to worldwide hearing conservation as well as the NHCA Outstanding Hearing Conservationist Award. Royster passed away in 2019.

According to MAE, less than two percent of the department’s 12,000 alumni have been inducted into the MAE Alumni Hall of Fame. More information about the 2021 MAE Hall of Fame inductees is available online.

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