Ultrasound Pioneers: William Fry and Floyd Dunn

William Fry’s ultrasound research led to more advanced medical practices for treating patients undergoing neurosurgery and for disorders such as Parkinson's disease and intractable pain. Fry is credited with establishing one of the foundations of bioengineering — and a new field of study — the medical application of ultrasound for therapeutic purposes. Fry also developed mechanical and artificial hearts, filing patents for this work in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Floyd Dunn (BSEE 1949, MSEE 1951, PhD 1956), who studied under professor Fry, later became an electrical engineering faculty member at Illinois. Dunn made important research contributions to understanding how ultrasound propagates in and interacts with biological media. During his 40-year career as an Illinois faculty member and director of the Bioacoustics Research Lab, Dunn conducted fundamental research that helped make ultrasound a safe and efficient diagnostic and therapeutic medical technique. His accomplishments impacted six major areas: absorption processes, nonlinear phenomena, applications in living systems, toxicity, measurement techniques, and acoustic microscopy.