History of high intensity focused ultrasound, Bill and Frank Fry and the Bioacoustics Research Laboratory

1946 is a key year in the history of HIFU. That year, sixty-eight years ago, the Bioacoustics Research Laboratory was established at the University of Illinois. Trained in theoretical physics, William J, (Bill) Fry (1918–1968) left his graduate studies at Penn State University to work at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC on underwater sound during World War II. Bill was hired by the University of Illinois in 1946, wanting to continue to conduct research activities of his own choosing in the freer university atmosphere. Like Bill, Francis J. (Frank) Fry (1920–2005) went to Penn State as well as the University of Pittsburgh where he studied electrical engineering. Frank joined Bill at the University of Illinois, also in 1946, having worked at Westinghouse Electric Corporation where his division was a prime contractor on the Manhattan Project. Floyd Dunn also arrived at the University of Illinois in 1946 as an undergraduate student, having served in the European Theater during World War II. The...