The late Peter Ladefoged, preeminent phonetician, founded the UCLA Phonetics Laboratory and was its director from 1962 to 1991. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1959. His major research interests included experimental phonetics and describing the sounds of the world's languages; his ground-breaking fieldwork took him to Europe, Africa, India, Australia, China, and elsewhere to record many languages. He was a member of many professional organizations and president of a few, including the International Phonetic Association (1986-1991) and the Linguistic Society of America (1980). He wrote extensively and was awarded many professional honors.
