Megan S. Ballard is a Senior Research Scientist at the Applied Research Laboratories, University of Texas at Austin. Ballard received a B.S. in Ocean Engineering from Florida Atlantic University 2005 and a Ph.D. in Acoustics from Pennsylvania State University in 2009. Ballard’s research areas are related to underwater acoustic propagation modeling, geoacoustic inversion, and direct measurement of marine sediment properties. Ballard received the Medwin Prized from the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) in 2025, the A. B. Wood Medal from the Institute of Acoustics in 2021, the R. Bruce Lindsay Award from the ASA in 2016, the Postdoctoral Special Research Award from the Office of Naval Research in 2011, and the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship Award in 2006. Ballard is a fellow of the ASA, the past-chair of Technical Committee on Underwater Acoustics of the ASA, Editor for the Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, and member of the ASA Executive Council. Ballard’s research areas are broadly related to underwater acoustic propagation modeling, geoacoustic inversion, and direct measurement of marine sediment properties. Ballard has made important contributions relevant to measurements and modeling of out-of-plane propagation effects, arctic acoustics, and seagrass acoustics.

Recent Publications

1. Megan S. Ballard, Kyle A. Capistrant-Fossa, Kevin M. Lee, Andrew R. McNeese, Colby W. Cushing, Robert T. Taylor, Thomas S. Jerome, Kenneth H. Dunton, and Preston S. Wilson, “Acoustic monitoring of two seagrass meadows reveals differences in oxygen ebullition and biomass,” Estuaries and Coasts, in review.
2. Thomas S. Jerome, Megan S. Ballard, Kevin M. Lee, Kyle A. Capistrant-Fossa, Andrew R. McNeese, Colby W. Cushing, Robert T. Taylor, Kenneth H. Dunton, and Preston S. Wilson, “Geoacoustic inference for monitoring of above-ground biomass in a seagrass meadow over two annual cycles,” Acoust. Soc. Am., in review.
3. Matthew C. Zeh, Erin C. Pettit, Megan S. Ballard, Preston S. Wilson, Jason M. Amundson, “The influence of ice coverage, calving, and melt on underwater ambient sound in a glacierized fjord,” JGR, in review.
4. Thomas S. Jerome, Megan S. Ballard, Julien Bonnel, and Jason D. Sagers, “Observation and modeling of out-of-plane arrivals on near-bottom recorders at the Atlantis II Seamount Complex,” Acoust. Soc. Am., 158(2), 1377–1385, 2025.
5. Robert T. Taylor, Megan S. Ballard, Jason D. Sagers, Leah Johnson, and Harper Simmons, “Passive acoustic estimates of sound speed from vertical line array data in the Nordic Seas,” JASA Express Letters, 5(7), 0708016, 2025.
6. Kyle A. Capistrant-Fossa, Megan S. Ballard, Kevin M. Lee, Colby W. Cushing, Andrew R. McNeese, Thomas S. Jerome, Preston S. Wilson, and Kenneth H. Dunton, “Acoustic monitoring of oxygen ebullition reveals hidden productivity in a seemingly heterotrophic seagrass meadow,” Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Research, 0087, 2025.
7. Robert T. Taylor, Megan S. Ballard, and John W. Hartman, “Acoustic characterization of the New England Seamounts Region,” Acoust. Soc. Am., 157(4), 2671–2686, 2025.
8. Kevin M. Lee, Kelly M. Dorgan, Gabriel R. Venegas, Jason D. Chaytor, Megan S. Ballard, Andrew R. McNeese, and Preston S. Wilson, “Investigation of surficial seabed heterogeneity and geoacoustic variability in the New England Mud Patch,” Acoust. Soc. Am., 157(3), 1686–1702, 2025.
9. Jim Thomson, Jie Yang, Robert Taylor, E. J. Rainville, Kristin Zeiden, Luc Rainville, Samuel Brenner, Megan Ballard, and Meghan Cronin, “Surface wave development and ambient sound in the ocean,” Journal of Geophysical Research, 129, 2024.
10. Megan S. Ballard, Kevin M. Lee, Kyle A. Capistrant-Fossa, Andrew R. McNeese, Colby W. Cushing, Thomas S. Jerome, Robert T. Taylor, Kenneth H. Dunton, and Preston S. Wilson, “A multi-year study of acoustic propagation and ambient sound in a Thalassia testudinum seagrass meadow in a shallow sub-tropical lagoon,” Acoust. Soc. Am., 156(5), 3039–3055, 2024.
11. Megan S. Ballard, Dante D. Garcia, Kevin M. Lee, Gabriel R. Venegas, Andrew R. McNeese, Preston S. Wilson, and Jason D. Chaytor, “Direct measurements of sediment geoacoustic properties in the New England Mud Patch and Shelf Break,” Acoust. Soc. Am., 156(4), 2889–2902, 2024.
12. Julien Bonnel, Stan E. Dosso, William S. Hodgkiss, Megan S. Ballard, Dante D. Garcia, Kevin M. Lee, Andrew R. McNeese, and Preston S. Wilson, “Trans-dimensional inversion for seafloor properties for three mud depocenters on the New England shelf under dynamical oceanographic conditions,” Acoust. Soc. Am., 155(3), 1825–1839, 2024.
13. Megan S. Ballard, Jason D. Sagers, Pierre-Marie Poulain, Jennifer MacKinnon, Andrew J. Lucas, and Alejandra Sanchez-Rios, “Out-of-plane arrivals recorded by drifting hydrophones during the Northern Ocean Rapid Surface Evolution Experiment,” Acoust. Soc. Am., 154(5), 2757–2768, 2023.
14. Malek Ibrahim, Jason D. Sagers, Megan S. Ballard, Minh Le, and Vasilis Koutsomitopoulos, “Evaluating machine learning architectures for sound event detection for signals with variable signal-to-noise ratios in the Beaufort Sea,” Acoust. Soc. Am., 154(4), 2689–2707, 2023.
15. Nicholas Torres, Megan S. Ballard, Kevin M. Lee, Preston S. Wilson, Christina J. Naify, and Aytahn Ben-Avi, “Characterizing the acoustic response of Thalassia testudinum leaves using resonator measurements and finite element modeling,” Acoust. Soc. Am., 153(1), 678–688, 2023.
16. Kevin M. Lee, Megan S. Ballard, Andrew R. McNeese, Preston S. Wilson, Gabriel R. Venegas, Matthew C. Zeh, and Abdullah F. Rahman, “Inter-seasonal comparison of acoustic propagation in a seagrass meadow,” JASA-EL, 3(1), 010801-1 – 010801-7, 2023.
17. Kevin M. Lee, Gabriel R. Venegas, Megan S. Ballard, Kelly M. Dorgan, Erin Kisaddon, Andrew McNeese, and Preston Wilson, “Impacts of infauna, worm tubes, and shell hash on sediment acoustic variability and deviation from the viscous grain shearing model,” Acoust. Soc. Am., 152(4), 2456–2474, 2022.
18. Matthew C. Zeh, Megan S. Ballard, Oskar Glowacki, Grant B. Deane, Preston S. Wilson, “Model–data comparison of sound propagation in a glacierized fjord with a simulated brash ice surface,” Acoust. Soc. Am., 151(4), 2367–2377, 2022.
19. Andria K. Salas, Megan S. Ballard, T. Aran Mooney, Preston S. Wilson, “Effects of frequency-dependent spatial variation in soundscape settlement cues for reef fish larvae,” Ecol. Prog. Ser., 687, 1–21, 2022.
20. Jason D. Chaytor, Megan S. Ballard, Brian Buczkowski, John A. Goff, Kevin Lee, Allen Reed, and Allyson Boggess, “Measurements of geologic characteristics and geophysical properties of sediments from the New England Mud Patch,” IEEE J. Ocean. Eng., 47(3), 503–530, 2022.