Professor Timothy Van Renterghem
Timothy Van Renterghem (born in Bruges, Belgium, 1976) received his degree in Bio-engineering (Environmental Technologies) at Ghent University, Faculty of Bio-engineering Sciences, in 1999. In October 2003, he obtained his Phd at Ghent University, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Department of Information Technology, Research group WAVES. Timothy is currently Full Professor in Environmental Acoustics, and teaches courses related to wave physics, noise pollution, acoustical instrumentation and urban (sound) planning. He has been a visiting Professor at the Lab of Mechanical Engineering at Sheffield University (UK).
Timothy Van Renterghem is member of the Belgian Acoustical Society (ABAV), the European Acoustical Association (EAA), and the Acoustical Society of America (ASA). He is Associate-Editor of Acta Acustica united with Acustica (journal of the EAA) for the theme “Atmospheric Sound” and Elsevier’s “Urban Forestry and Urban Greening”. He is currently author of about 90 A1-publications and more than 140 publications in the proceedings of international congresses. Timothy Van Renterghem co-authored the book “Predicting Outdoor Sound” (Taylor and Francis, CRC press, 690 pages, ISBN 9781498740074), a reference work in this scientific field.
His main research interest is sound propagation outdoors, strongly linked to the environmental noise issue. Subtopics of interest are the impact of local meteorology on sound propagation in the atmospheric boundary layer, the interaction between vegetation and acoustic waves and urban sound propagation and design. A specific measure of continuing interest is how vegetation can be used to tackle environmental noise issues, both from the physical point of view (decibel reduction) and perception improvement (including audio-visual interactions and soundscaping with natural sounds).
Plenary talk title: “Audio-Visual Interactions in Environmental Noise Perception and the Link to Urban Greening”