Dean Gus Hart of the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences has appointed Dr. Kent L. Gee as chair of the Department of Physics & Astronomy. Gee replaced Richard R. Vanfleet, who served as department chair since 2013.
“Dr. Gee is a distinguished researcher and leader in the field of acoustics,” said Hart. “He brings both expertise and vision to the department. We are excited to see what he will accomplish as chair.”
Dr. Gee’s research in acoustics includes studying high-amplitude noise propagation and characterizing jet and rocket noise sources. One of the many projects he is currently working on is a crowd sentiment identification project that Gee hopes will be used to assess trends in crowds through acoustics and machine learning. Gee is a fellow of the Acoustical Society of America, has received its R. Bruce Lindsay Award, and is Editor of Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics.
“The Department of Physics and Astronomy has a long history of outstanding teaching and mentored research experiences for students,” said Gee. “As chair, I want to work with my associate chairs and colleagues to further become ‘of one heart and one mind,’ creating an environment where the faculty and students come together and strive for excellence, both in the classroom and the laboratory.”
Dr. Gee graduated magna cum laude from BYU with a bachelor’s degree in applied physics in 2001. He wrote his thesis on multi-channel active control of axial cooling fan noise and completed his master’s degree in physics also at BYU in 2002. He earned his Ph.D. in acoustics from Pennsylvania State University in 2005 where he focused his research on predicting the non-linearity in jet noise propagation. Dr. Gee joined the BYU faculty in 2005.