Santiago Barreda

Santiago Barreda is an Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of California, Davis, specializing in speech perception and phonetic analysis. His research examines how acoustic properties of speech convey speaker characteristics including age, gender, and physical attributes.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Linguistics (Phonetics), University of Alberta, 2013
• M.A. in Hispanic Studies (Language and Linguistics), University of Western Ontario, 2008
• B.A. in Linguistics and Spanish Language and Literature, University of Western Ontario, 2006

Research Focus: Dr. Barreda employs behavioral experiments and statistical modeling to investigate perceptual mechanisms in speech recognition. His work bridges theoretical phonetics with practical applications, particularly in vowel normalization techniques and formant tracking algorithms. Key questions address how listeners extract speaker identity from acoustic cues and interpret social characteristics through vocal signals.

Publication Trends: Recent publications (2020-2025) reveal three dominant themes: computational phonetic tools (FastTrack, phonTools), perception of social/physical speaker characteristics from children's voices, and interdisciplinary public health research on speech-related aerosol transmission. His work demonstrates strong methodological consistency in combining acoustic analysis with perceptual validation.

Scientific Awards:

No scientific awards were mentioned in the source material.

Advising and Grants:

The provided documentation does not specify graduate student advising roles or external grant funding.

Technical Contributions:

Dr. Barreda develops open-source phonetic analysis software including FastTrack (Praat-based formant tracking) and the phonTools R package, which have become standard resources in acoustic phonetic research.