We are sad to share the news of the passing of our firm founder, George P. Wilson. Along with Dr. Karl Ihrig, Dr. Wilson formed Wilson Ihrig in 1966 and served as President of the firm until 2003. His pioneering work in developing vibration isolation designs and techniques for buildings and rail transportation systems, and willingness to share his knowledge and accomplishments throughout his career with the firm and industry colleagues were two of his greatest professional achievements. We will honor his legacy by continuing to maintain a gold standard for noise and vibration science and applied mitigation technology.
A full biography of Dr. Wilson’s accomplishments can be found HERE.
We are always looking for qualified acousticians for Associate or Assistant positions in our Los Angeles or Emeryville office. Apply HERE!
We are Small Business Enterprise (SBE) certified by both BART and LA Metro. Our 24-person firm has specialized in rail transit noise and vibration control since 1966. Our services have contributed to hundreds of successful projects over the decades, and now we’re pleased that we can also help primes meet their SBE goals.
Dr. Wilson’s Accomplishments
Received his Ph.D. (1963); M.S. (1957); B.S. (1954) in Mechanical Engineering from U.C., Berkeley. His doctoral work included teaching upper division classes in Mechanical Engineering; particularly a new class he developed titled E-173 Noise Control. Dr. Wilson taught this class himself for four years.
His accomplishments in the field of acoustics: Fellow Status in 1980 by the Acoustical Society of America, C. Paul Boner Award in 1992 by the National Council of Acoustical Consultants (NCAC), and most recently, awarded the 2017 NCAC Laymon Miller Award for Excellence in Acoustical Consulting .
With Dr. Karl Ihrig, founded Wilson Ihrig in 1966, consulting in the fields of noise and vibration control for rail systems and the vibration isolation of noise sensitive buildings. Shortly after the firm’s founding, BART invited Dr. Wilson to bid on a BART test track measurement program. Additional clients followed: WMATA, TTC, MARTA, which the firm continues to service today.
In the early 1970s, Floating Slab Track (FST) assemblies had to be heavily damped to control vibration amplification at the floating slab resonance. Dr. Wilson completed an analysis that indicated that because the excitation force is a non-coherent, moving, impact load, it is not necessary to have damping in order to avoid significant amplification at the floating slab resonance frequency. His tests confirmed that FST without damping had only 3 to 5 dB amplification at the resonance frequency. It’s success resulted in wide spread adoption of the discontinuous design with natural rubber resilient support pads to control of ground borne noise and vibration from rail systems. The FST design has enabled the development of dozens of rail transit systems in noise sensitive areas without causing significant environmental noise or vibration impacts.
A natural extension of the work on FST vibration isolation was to apply the same design ideas and materials to the isolation of buildings from ground-borne or structure-borne vibration and noise. Dr. Wilson began using natural rubber support bearing pads for building isolation in the 1980s. Early projects successfully isolated from ground-borne noise produced by adjacent rail systems included Birmingham Symphony Hall, U.K. (1980) and Benaroya Hall in Seattle (1998).
Wilson Ihrig celebrated its 55th Anniversary this year; and it attributes much of its reputation and longevity to Dr. Wilson’s many innovations in the areas of rail and building vibration isolation that have made seemingly impossible projects possible. His innovations and over half a century of noise, vibration, and acoustical knowledge have inspired the next generation of acoustical consultants who have joined the firm to follow in the steps of its founder.