Acoustics lecturer earns Lifetime Achievement Award


LAWRENCE — Earlier this month the National Association of Systems Contractors announced that Robert Coffeen, acoustics lecturer for the Department of Architecture, has won its annual Per Haugen Lifetime Achievement Award.

“We’re honored to pay tribute to someone who continues to move the industry forward,” says NSCA Executive Director Chuck Wilson. “Bob has committed his professional life to combining architecture and audio technology. He serves as a great example to many new leaders within our industry. I had the great fortune of learning most of what I know about audio systems from him.”

Coffeen began teaching at KU in 1992 after owning and operating his own acoustic consulting firm for more than 35 years. During his tenure the firm completed more than 3,000 projects worldwide.

He is well-known to students for his ingenious audio demonstrations and talent for making the extremely complex physics of sound understandable without watering it down.

But perhaps his most lasting contribution to both the field and KU is Coffeen's role as a mentor. Several dozen of his former students are now employed in the acoustics field professionally.

“Any architect should be able to walk into a space and look at the materials there and figure out what the room is going to sound like. Most KU architecture graduates can, and that’s unusual,” he said.

Coffeen adds the Haugen Award to a wall full of industry accolades. He has also received NSCA’s University Educator of the Year award three times and the Acoustical Society of America’s Rossing Prize for Education in Acoustics. The Bose Corporation’s Professional Systems Division awarded him its Education Excellence Award in 2012.

The Per Haugen lifetime achievement award is given to an individual who exhibits dedication to philanthropy and social responsibility, and business practices with high ethics and integrity, in addition to active leadership in the NSCA. It is a not-for-profit association that represents the commercial low-voltage electronic systems industry.

Fri, 02/28/2014

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Charles D. Linn

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Charles Linn

School of Architecture & Design

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