The Ocean Acoustics and Dynamics Laboratory is a group with interests linking acoustic propagation physics and ocean dynamics with a focus on using acoustic propagation observations, ocean medium measurements, theory, and modeling to infer wave physics (the forward problem) and/or properties of the medium (the inverse problem). Undersea remote sensing, navigation, and communication are some common applications of this work.

The lab has very close ties to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), Acoustical Oceanography Group who carry out the precisely timed and navigated acoustical observations that are necessary for this kind of work. The group has interests in processes from turbulence scales, to internal waves, to eddies, and even climate scales. Regions in which recently done field work has been carried out are, the Philippine Sea, the Beaufort Sea, the continental shelf off Point Conception California, the Eastern Arctic (Nansen and Amundson Basins), and the New England Seamounts approximately 400-miles east of Cape Cod in the Gulf Stream.