Eric Ballestero
Post-doctoral researcher at LAUM
(Laboratoire d'Acoustique de l'Université du Mans, UMR-CNRS 6613, France)
PhD in Acoustic Metamaterials & Auditorium Acoustics
MSc in Environmental & Architectural Acoustics
GDip in Acoustics & Vibration Engineering
HND in Audio Engineering
About me
Born in Spain, raised in both Spain and France (near Switzerland), and having lived many years in the United Kindgom for the last half of my studies -- covering audio engineering, physics and more specifically acoustics -- I got the opportunity to learn from many subjects and work on many projects.
I graduated with an MSc in Architectural Acoustics at London South Bank University (LSBU), U.K., with my end-of-year project focusing on a Virtual Reality implementation of pre-computed impulse responses of the roman theatre of Arles, France, which could ultimately be fed into a binaural audio signal processing framework made between Max/MSP and the game engine Unity. Today, such processes are well integrated through various plugins made by major actors of the video game industry.
In the years that followed, my PhD research at LSBU, with close collaboration with the Laboratory of Acoustics of the University of Le Mans (LAUM), lead me to work on ultra-thin acoustic metamaterials for diffusing sound -- metadiffusers -- that could overcome the engineering constraints of traditional acoustic treatments (mainly thickness) in view of overhauling the acoustic conditions of performing musicians at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London. Not only did these structures perfomed well under very thin dimension constraints (14 times thinner), but they also showed great flexibility in terms of effective sound diffusion for large frequency ranges. I also worked with the Acoustics & Audio Group of the University of Edinburgh, U.K., on the numerical implementation of such structures into state-of-the-art acoustic simulations for determining virtually the effect these would have on specific room geometries, such as orchestra pits.
During my first two post-doctoral years, I was a researcher at LAUM, working for the National Centre of Scientific Research (CNRS), where I specialised in passive acoustic metamaterials for controlling wave propagation. More specifically, I was working in a National Research Agency (ANR) project titled METARoom for designing a passivity-induced optimal deep-subwavelength reconfigurable acoustic metamaterial for room acoustic purposes, with configurations varying between very absorptive to non-absorbing but very diffusing. I also did a one-month visit in the context of a collaboration with the Institute of Instrumentation for Molecular Imaging (I3M) of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, concerning the design of ultrasound lenses for biomedical applications.
Now, while still working at LAUM, I begin a one year and a half post-doctoral journey (at least) in collaboration with fellow biologists at the LIPME and MIAT laboratories of the National Research Institute in Agronomy and Environment (INRAE) in Toulouse, France, and with the Universitary Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IUMPA) at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain. In this collaboration, we explore how certain plant hair cells (i.e. trichomes) could borrow some physical phenomena usually linked to periodic media, such as sonic crystals or metamaterials, even though their apparent distribution seems disordered. Such phenomena would help engage a biological auto-immune response of the plant when it is being subjectted to mechanical activity linked to herbivory.
On parallel, I am also the co-founder and treasurer of the Young Researchers in Acoustic Metamaterials (YRAM) association, a network dedicated to PhD candidates and ECIs (Early Career Investigators) working on acoustic and elastic metamaterials and aiming at enhancing collaborations and co-working between young researchers in this field. Since 2018, our main goal is to organise a 3 day-long international Symposium on Acoustic Metamaterials (SAM) each year, as well as co-organizing training schools on these topics.
contact: eric.ballestero [at] univ-lemans.fr