This volume contains forty-six of the papers presented at the Ninth International Symposium on Acoustical Imaging held December 3-6, 1979, in Houston, Texas. The theme of the confer- ence was the integration of applications technology. The major objective of the conference was to promote interaction among researchers working on different applications of acoustical imaging. In addition to serving as a state-of-the-art research ref- erence, this volume includes six tutorial review papers. For convenience, all the papers are grouped under the following headings: methods, transducers, processing and display, phased array considerations, acoustic microscopy/non-destructive evalu- ation, reconstructive tomography and inversion techniques, tissue characterization and impediography, nedica1 applications, under- water applications, and seismic applications. The editor would like to thank the authors and the confer- ence participants. The editor would also like to express his appreciation for the assistance in evaluating the abstracts from the following members of the Program Committee: Mahfuz Ahmed, University of California Irvine l:1edica1 Center; Pierre A1ais, Paris University, France; C. B. Burckhardt, Hoffman-Laroche, Basel, Switzerland; B. P. Hildebrand, Spectron Development Labora- tories, Inc., Costa Mesa, California; Larry W. Kessler, Sonoscan, Inc., Bensenville, Illinois; Rolf Uue11er, University of Hinnesota, l1inneapo1is, Uinnesota; John P. Powers, Naval Post Graduate School, J:1onterey, California; Jerry L. Sutton, Naval Ocean Systems Center, San Diego, California; F. L. Thurstone, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina; Robert C. Waag, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York; and Glen Wade, University of California, Santa Barbara, California.
