Richard Raspet, the construction engineering research laboratory, and beyond

Richard Raspet was a consummate researcher and mentor to many students at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign during his employment at the Construction Engineering Research Laboratory, now known as a laboratory of the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC). This talk will provide an overview of some of the projects that Dr. Raspet undertook during the 1980s, with a particular focus on his work with students. Time permitting, the discussion will extend to his work at the University of Mississippi on sonic booms and thermoacoustics in the 1990s. The present author is honored to have been the first of Richard’s many Ph.D. students, and his personal influence was just as profound and lasting as that of his many technical contributions. [Work supported by the Penn State College of Engineering through its United Technologies Corporation Professorship in Acoustics.]