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 received the A.B. Wood Medal and Prize from the UK Institute of Acoustics in 2021, R. Bruce Lindsay Award from the Acoustical Society of America 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 Acoustical Society of America (ASA), the past-chair of Technical Committee on Underwater Acoustics of the ASA, and Editor for the Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics. 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. Nicholas Torres, Megan S. Ballard, Kevin M. Lee, Preston S. Wilson, Christina J. Naify, and Aytahn Ben-avi, “Characterizing acoustic response of Thalassia testudinum leaves using resonator measurements and finite element modeling,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am., submitted.
2. 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, accepted.
3. 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,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am., accepted.
4. 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,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 151(4), pp. 2367-2377, 2022.
5. 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,” Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser., 687, pp. 1-21, 2022.
6. Jason D. Chaytor, Megan S. Ballard, Brian Buczkowski, John A. Go_, 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), pp. 503-530, 2022.
7. Megan S. Ballard and Jason D. Sagers, “Clustering analysis of a yearlong record of ambient sound on the Chukchi Shelf,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 150(3), pp. 1597-1608, 2021.
8. Megan S. Ballard, Mohsen Badiey, Jason D. Sagers, John Colosi, Altan Turgut, Sean Pecknold, Andrey Proshutinsky, Richard Krish_eld, Peter F. Worcester, and Matthew A. Dzieciuch, “Temporal and spatial dependence of a yearlong record of sound propagation from the Canada Basin to the Chukchi Shelf,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 148(3), pp. 1663-1680, 2020.
9. Megan Ballard, Kevin Lee, Jason Sagers, Gabriel Venegas, Andrew McNeese, Preston Wilson, and Abdullah Rahman, “Application of acoustical remote sensing techniques for ecosystem monitoring of a seagrass meadow,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 147(3), pp. 2002-2019, 2020.
10. Kelly M. Dorgan, Will Ballentine, Grant Lockridge, Erin Kiskaddon, Megan S. Ballard, Kevin M. Lee, and Preston S. Wilson, “Impacts of simulated infaunal activities on acoustic wave propagation in marine sediments,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 147(2), pp. 812-823, 2020.
11. Megan S. Ballard, Kevin M. Lee, Andrew R. McNeese, Preston S. Wilson, Jason Chaytor, John A. Goff, and Allen H. Reed, “In situ measurements of compressional wave speed during gravity coring operations in the New England Mud Patch," IEEE J. Ocean. Eng., 45(1), pp. 26-38, 2020.