State Key Laboratory of Acoustics (SKLA) is attached to Institute of Acoustics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 1987, State Planning Commission approved the establishment of SKLA. SKLA was founded at the end of 1989 and officially opened in Sep. 1990. SKLA was all rated as "Excellence" in the total of four national assessments in 1991, 1994, 2000 and 2005, respectively. In the 10th and 20th anniversary awards ceremony for the construction of State Key Laboratories in 1995 and 2005, SKLA was nominated as the 'Advanced Laboratory' and Prof. ZHANG Renhe was commented as the 'Advanced Individual', respectively. The current director of academic committee is Prof. ZHANG Renhe, who is an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the honorary chairman of Acoustical Society of China, a member of ICA and the chairman of the Western Pacific Acoustics Committee. The current director of SKLA is Prof. GUO Lianghao.

Acoustics is a subject to study the excitation, transmission, scattering and receiving of sound waves in the media. As an information carrier, sound is an important way to detect the internal characteristics and the structure of media, especially for the media which have a strong absorption of electromagnetic waves, such as sea, sediment and opaque materials. In these situations, sound waves even CAN NOT be replaced by any other methods for detection. Modern acoustics is a multi-interdisciplinary subject intersected by oceanography, information science, materials science, bio-medicine, earth and environment sciences, and so on, which occupies an important position in the national economy and security.

1). Continue to maintain the advantages in ocean acoustics, to enhance the experimental researches in underwater acoustics and the construction of the experiment platform, to strengthen the leadership in the ocean acoustics and further to promote the researches in China.

2). To achieve significant progress in the application on ocean acoustics.

3). To strengthen the fundamental and applied researches in ultrasound physics and audio acoustics.

Since the founding of SKLA, the scientific researches have made many breakthroughs in shallow water acoustics, such as ocean acoustic tomography, sediment acoustics, geo-acoustic inversion, matched field processing, underwater communications, etc. Based on the theoretical researches, numerical simulations and a large number of sea experiments in recent years, beam-displacement ray-mode theory (BDRM) of sound propagation, WKBZ, CNPE and reverberation theory in shallow water are proposed. The innovation for three-dimensional localization of underwater acoustic sources and long-range underwater acoustic communication are presented. With these outstanding achievements, SKLA received a number of national and provincial-level science and technology awards, published a number of high-quality papers and patents in possession of intellectual property.

Currently, SKLA has a group of senior generation of scientists, represented by Academician ZHANG Renhe and a group of outstanding young academic leaders, such as Prof. GUO Lianghao, Prof. LI Fenghua, Prof. WANG Xiuming and Prof. WANG Haibin. A professional research group with reasonable age structure has been organized, which has the strong cohesion and effectiveness. Currently, SKLA has 37 research staffs, one academician, 25 professors and senior researchers. 70% of research staffs are under 45 years old and have received Ph.D degree. SKLA can enroll the students for M.S. and Ph.D degree, also have post-doctoral programs.

In recent years, nearly 20 open projects have been approved, specially for the cooperation with the domestic and foreign experts. SKLA actively organized and participated in many international academic exchanges and cooperation. In recent 10 years, the joint experiments in ocean acoustics with the scientists in USA and Russia are fruitful. In 1995, SKLA organized the 3rd China-Russia Pacific underwater acoustic experiment on 'ocean climate and acoustic temperature measurement' and obtained large quantities of ocean environmental data. In 1996, SKLA co-organized the China-USA joint scientific experiment in the Yellow Sea. In the experiment, the simultaneous measurement of underwater acoustics and oceanography was realized and the comprehensive experimental data were obtained. In 2001, SKLA co-organized the Asian Seas international shallow water acoustics experiment. From 1995 to 2006, SKLA carried out eight times symposiums on ocean acoustic with the scientists in USA and Korea. In 1997 and 2009, SKLA successfully co-organized the 1st and 2nd international conference on shallow water acoustics, respectively in Beijing and Shanghai. About 100 world-known scientists and researchers attended each conference. In Sep. 2009, SKLA co-organized the 10th Western Pacific Acoustics conference (WESPAC X) in Beijing and Prof. ZHANG Renhe is the president of conference. As the co-chairs, Prof. LI Fenghua attended the Pacific Rim international Conference on underwater acoustics in Sep. 2009, and Prof. ZHANG Renhe was invited to give a distinguished lecture in the conference.

With the great support of Institute of Acoustics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, SKLA will continue to focus on the major needs of the national economic and security, to refine the strategic development objectives, to better balance the fundamental and applied researches, to work hard for more original theoretical and technological innovations, continue to place more emphasis on the transformation from fundamental research results to the applications. Furthermore, SKLA has been on the fundamental, strategic and forward-looking researches. SKLA is an excellent and capable research group, and authorized by the relevant state ministries and commissions to be the first groups of scientific and technological innovation in 2007. SKLA will continue to hold and even strengthen the open-door policy for the talents, and train and employ the excellent researchers to keep the fresh vitality of the group, to promote the innovation and development of acoustics research in China.