NCPA resides on the campus of the University of Mississippi, which, in turn is located in the beautiful and charming town of Oxford, Mississippi. Oxford is a beautiful Southern town, complete with oak-lined streets, town square, and large antebellum and Victorian homes. It was the home of the late Nobel Prize-winning auther, William Faulkner, who bulit his mythical accounts on stories gleaned and transformed from his lifetime observance of the region. A city of about 12,000 residents, Oxford is a vibrant University town, filled with unique shops and galleries, eclectic restaurants and clubs, historic landmarks, and comfortable inns.

NCPA maintains basic and applied research programs in many areas of physical acoustics; provides coordination of major, multi-university research programs in the United States; serves as an advocate for physical acoustics to federal agencies and other organizations; provides significant educational opportunities for students and postdocs; and provides direct research assistance to investigators throughout the world. NCPA serves as the Physical Acoustics Archives for the Acoustical Society of America and coordinates the biennial Physical Acoustics Summer School.

Although NCPA is not an academic department, we do employ undergraduate and graduate students. This employment allows graduate students to fulfill their research requirements for their degrees and undergraduate students to enhance their learning experience.