Dr. Juan I. Arvelo Jr. earned physics degrees from the University of Puerto Rico and Catholic University of America. He has been an active member of the American Institute of Physics and Acoustical Society of America since 1984, holding several leadership positions in both organizations and involving himself in educational outreach efforts targeting under-represented minorities in physics. Dr. Arvelo also serves as an associate editor for the highly-cited Journal of the Acoustical Society of America and Proceedings on Meetings in Acoustics, ensuring technical standards are upheld in publications.

1. Portrait of an Active Member of the
Science & Technology Community

2. Dr. Juan I. Arvelo Jr. earned his undergraduate degree in Physics
at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) with magna cum laude
and the Enrico Fermi award for best physics student. This was
followed with a PhD degree in Physics at Catholic University of
America (CUA) in Washington DC, under Professor Emeritus
Herbert Uberall.
He has been an active member of the American Institute of
Physics (AIP) and the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) since
1984. His active involvement commenced as president of the
Washington DC chapter of the Acoustical Society followed by
two terms as co-chair of the ASA Committee on Regional
Chapters.

3. During this period, he was involved in educational outreach
efforts targeting under-represented minorities in physics at
annual conferences of the National Society of Black Physicists
(NSBP), the National Society of Hispanic Physicists (NSHP) and
the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native
Americans Scientists (SACNAS). As a result of his efforts to
expose under-represented students to physics, he later
became the ASA liaison member to the AIP Committee on
Under-Represented Minorities (CURM) and chair of the ASA
Committee on Diversity in Acoustics (CDA).

4. Dr. Arvelo also became associate editor of the Journal of the
Acoustical Society of America (JASA) and the Proceedings on
Meetings in Acoustics (POMA), where he ensures that
manuscripts abide by their high technical standards before
publication. Publication in JASA is coveted worldwide for the
highest exposure in the acoustics community. For example, in
2011, JASA was cited more than 32,000 times while the second
place journal had half the number of citations.

5. More recently, he became an Acoustics Today (AT) advisory
board member chartered to steer the technical magazine’s
direction to better serve the needs of the scientific community.