For decades, Krishan Ahuja tamed jet noise, for which the National Academy of Engineering elected him as a new member this year. Today, Ahuja is an esteemed researcher at the Georgia Institute of Technology, but he got his start more than 50 years ago as an engineering apprentice in Rolls Royce’s aero-engine division, eventually landing in its jet noise research department.

“In those days, if jets went over your house and you were outside, you’d feel like you needed to put your hands over your ears. Not today,” says Ahuja, who is a Regents Researcher at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) and Regents Professor in Georgia Tech’s Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering.

Cyclists watching a jet soar overhead, circa 1960s. Credit: National Archives, Records of the Environmental Protection Agency.

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