Whitlow Au - Biosonar of Dolphins

Biosonar of Dolphins

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America from 1974 to the present day contains dozens of articles with Au's name in the authorship line, a remarkably productive development of the fundamental knowledge of dolphin and whale biosonar. Based on this work and his service, Au became a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America in 1990. His 20-plus years of investigation were summarized and expanded in his book The Sonar of Dolphins. An analysis and appreciation of this work might best be described by quoting some of the reviewers that did the initial book reviews. David Pye wrote that "... Whitlow Au has written a splendid book, which is likely to become a classic in its field, and of considerable interest well outside it." (Nature 366, 376 (1993)) while Bertel Møhl wrote that "This book is an authoritative, precise and comprehensive treatise in 277 pages of what is known about sonar (or echolocation) in dolphins, written by the leading scientist in the field" . James Fullard (Science 260, 1672 (1993)) noted that "Au's book is an excellent synthesis of the mountain of work on dolphin sonar ..."

This book seemed to come at the peak of Au's productivity. Dolphin and whale echolocation had been systematically studied at the Hawaii Laboratory since 1970 by combining the skills of electrical engineers, psychologists, biologists, physiologists, physicists, mechanical engineers, veterinarians, astute animal trainers, and, to quote the preface to Au's book, "a political scientist." That combination of professional skills allowed the "mountain of work" on dolphin sonar to be completed and very well presented in The Sonar of Dolphins.