Elżbieta M. Walerian, Ph.D., D.Sc., a retired employee of the Institute of Fundamental Technological Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IPPT PAN), passed away after a serious illness, on the 26th December 2013. She was one of the scientific leaders in the Section of Environmental Acoustics of IPPT PAN and her career, educational and organizational activities were inseparably linked with the acoustics. Elżbieta Walerian was born on August 9th 1950 in Poznań. She graduated from the Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, receiving her Master of Science degree in the environmental acoustics in 1973. Five years later, under the supervision of Professor Ignacy Malecki, she obtained her PhD title, in the physical acoustics, in IPPT PAN in Warsaw. In 1979 she began working at the Section of Environmental Acoustics of IPPT PAN, where she dealt with the diffraction of acoustic waves and a description of the sound field produced by vehicles moving in an urban area.