Electro-Acoustic Laboratory, Harvard University

Founded in 1940 as part of an initiative to reduce noise problems experienced by bomber pilots during the War. The laboratory was headed by the then 26 year-old Leo Beranek at Harvard. During the War, the laboratory did pioneering research in noise reduction and communications, famously erecting a large anechoic chamber on Harvard's North Yard. The Electro-Acoustic Laboratory collaborated extensively with another Harvard institution, the Psycho-Acoustic Laboratory headed by S.S. Stevens.

In 1947, Leo Beranek was appointed as professor of Communications Engineering at MIT.

For a detailed history of the Electro-Acoustic Laboratory, see: Brandon Gary Shackelford, When Noise Signals Change: The Electro-Acoustic and Psycho-Acoustic Laboratories from 1940 to 1945 . Senior Thesis, History and Science Concentration, Harvard University, 1997.