Dr. Hamilton received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University, his M.S. and Ph.D. in Acoustics from Penn State, followed by a postdoctoral year in the Department of Mathematics at University of Bergen in Norway. He became a faculty member in the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering in 1985. He is also Research Professor at Applied Research Laboratories, which is the largest organized research unit at UT, and its core technical area is acoustics.

Dr. Hamilton conducts research in physical acoustics, particularly nonlinear acoustics, often with biomedical applications. His current areas of research include focused shear wave beams in tissue, acoustic vortex beams, Mach waves near supersonic jets, acoustic radiation force on objects near interfaces, and focused surface acoustic shock waves in anisotropic solids.

His home professional society is the Acoustical Society of America, for which he served as Vice President and President, and he continues to serve as Associate Editor in the areas of physical and nonlinear acoustics. He served on the Governing Board of the American Institute of Physics for six years, he has served as Secretary General for the International Symposia on Nonlinear Acoustics since 2005, and he recently completed a three-year term as President of the International Commission for Acoustics, which functions as a United Nations for more than 50 acoustical societies around the world.

Dr. Hamilton was a recipient of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowship for Science and Engineering, the NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award, the ASME Pi Tau Sigma Gold Medal, and the ASEE Curtis W. McGraw Research Award. The ASA presented him with its R. Bruce Lindsay Award, the Helmholtz-Rayleigh Interdisciplinary Silver Medal in Physical Acoustics, Biomedical Acoustics and Engineering Acoustics, and its Gold Medal. He also received the David T. Blackstock Mentorship Award from the ASA Student Council.

Most Recent Publications

1. B. E. Simon and M. F. Hamilton, “Analytical solution for acoustic radiation force and torque on a spheroid near a rigid or free planar boundary,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 156, 1269–1282 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0028165
2. C. A. Gokani, M. R. Haberman, and M. F. Hamilton, “Paraxial and ray approximations of acoustic vortex beams,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 155, 2707–2723 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0025688
3. J. M. Cormack, Y.-h. Chao, B. T. Archer, K. Kim, K. S. Spratt, and M. F. Hamilton, “Focused shear wave beam propagation in tissue-mimicking phantoms,” IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng. 71, 621–630 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1109/TBME.2023.3311688
4. J. M. Cormack and M. F. Hamilton, “Nonlinear propagation of quasiplanar shear wave beams in soft elastic media with transverse isotropy,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 153, 2887-2899 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0019358
5. W. A. Willis III, J. M. Cormack, C. E. Tinney, and M. F. Hamilton. “Reduced-order comparison of simulated and measured coalescing Mach waves near supersonic jets,” AIAA Journal 61, 2022-2034 (2023). https://doi.org/10.2514/1.J062462
6. B. T. Archer, Y.-h. Chao, J. M. Cormack, K. Kim, K. S. Spratt, and M. F. Hamilton, “Longitudinal motion of focused shear wave beams in soft elastic media,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 153, 1591-1599 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0017434
7. B. E. Simon and M. F. Hamilton, “Analytical solution for acoustic radiation force on a sphere near a planar boundary,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 153, 627-642 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0016885
8. J. M. Cormack, Yu. A. Ilinskii, E. A. Zabolotskaya, and M. F. Hamilton, “Nonlinear piezoelectric surface acoustic waves,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 151, 1829-1846 (2022). https://asa.scitation.org/doi/10.1121/10.0009770
9. K. S. Spratt, K. M. Lee, P. S. Wilson, and M. F. Hamilton, “Acoustic scattering from a toroidal bubble,” JASA Express Lett. 2, 036001 (2022). https://asa.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1121/10.0009727
10. B. E. Simon, J. M. Cormack, and M. F. Hamilton, “Evolution equation for nonlinear Lucassen waves, with application to a threshold phenomenon,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 150, 3648–3663 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0006970
11. T. S. Jerome and M. F. Hamilton, “Born approximation of acoustic radiation force and torque on inhomogeneous objects,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 150, 3417-3427 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0006739
12. T. S. Jerome, Yu. A. Ilinskii, E. A. Zabolotskaya, and M. F. Hamilton, “Acoustic radiation torque on a compressible spheroid,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 149, 2081-2088 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0003813
13. M. L. Barlett, T. G. Muir, C. M. Slack III, and M. F. Hamilton, “Acoustical characterization of a portable pneumatic infrasound source,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 148, 3818-3826 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0002915
14. T. S. Jerome, Yu. A. Ilinskii, E. A. Zabolotskaya, and M. F. Hamilton, “Acoustic radiation force on a compressible spheroid,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 148, 2403-2415 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0002277
15. J. D. Gorhum, T. G. Muir, C. M. Slack III, T. W. Hawkins, M. L. Barlett, and M. F. Hamilton, “Acoustic radiation from an infrasonic ball-valve siren,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 147, 1581-1587 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0000850
16. S. G. Konarski, M. R. Haberman, and M. F. Hamilton, “Acoustic response for nonlinear, coupled multiscale model containing subwavelength designed microstructure instabilities,” Phys. Rev. E 101, 022215 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.101.022215
17. T. G. Muir, J. M. Cormack, C. M. Slack, and M. F. Hamilton, “Elastic softening of sandstone due to a wideband acoustic pulse,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 147, 1006-1014 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0000512
18. J. M. Cormack and M. F. Hamilton, “Transient solutions for the angular dependence of acoustical transmitters and receivers employing paraboloidal reflectors,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 147, 490-499 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0000586
19. T. S. Jerome, Yu. A. Ilinskii, E. A. Zabolotskaya, and M. F. Hamilton, “Born approximation of acoustic radiation force and torque on soft objects of arbitrary shape,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 145, 36-44 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1121/1.508404
20. J. M. Cormack and M. F. Hamilton, “Overturning of nonlinear compressional and shear waves subject to power-law attenuation or relaxation,” Wave Motion 85, 18-33 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wavemoti.2018.10.004
21. S. G. Konarski, M. R. Haberman, and M. F. Hamilton, “Frequency-dependent behavior of media containing pre-strained nonlinear inclusions: Application to nonlinear acoustic metamaterials,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 144, 3022-3035 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1121/1.5078529
22. Yu. A. Ilinskii, E. A. Zabolotskaya, B. C. Treweek, and M. F. Hamilton, “Acoustic radiation force on an elastic sphere in a soft elastic medium,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 144, 568-576 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1121/1.5047442
23. J. M. Cormack and M. F. Hamilton, “Plane nonlinear shear waves in relaxing media,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 143, 1035-1048 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1121/1.5023394

Selected Publications

1. M. F. Hamilton and D. T. Blackstock, eds., Nonlinear Acoustics, 3rd edition (Springer, Cham, 2024). Open Access: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-58963-8
2. D. T. Blackstock, J. M. Cormack, and M. F. Hamilton, “Early history of nonlinear acoustics,” Proc. Mtgs. Acoust. 36, 045007 (2020). https://asa.scitation.org/doi/pdf/10.1121/2.0001332
3. O. A. Sapozhnikov, V. A. Khokhlova, R. O. Cleveland, P. Blanc-Benon, and M. F. Hamilton, “Nonlinear acoustics today,” Acoustics Today 15, 55-64 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1121/AT.2019.15.3.55