Dr. William J. Bologna is Assistant Professor in the Department of Speech-Language Pathology & Audiology at Towson University. He directs the Towson Auditory Simulation Lab (TASL), developing innovative assessment approaches using gamification and virtual reality. Research examines: Age-related changes in speech perception and spatial hearing Effects of gamification on auditory assessment Neural coding of speech in noisy environments Contributions of voice expectations to talker selection His work combines psychoacoustic methods with neurophysiological measures to study auditory aging. Recent publications investigate brainstem processing in older adults, gamified spatial hearing tests, and perceptual organization of interrupted speech. Educational background includes PhD (University of Maryland), AuD, and Certificate in Human Investigations (Oregon Health & Science University). Professional affiliations include American Auditory Society and Acoustical Society of America.
Suzanne Miller is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at St. John's University, part of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. She serves as Program Director for the New York AuD Consortium, collaborating with Adelphi, Hofstra, and St. John’s Universities. Dr. Miller is a licensed audiologist in New York and a member of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). Her education includes a Ph.D. in Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences from the CUNY Graduate Center, an M.A. in Audiology from St. John’s University, and a B.A. from Boston College. Her research focuses on objective hearing assessments, electrophysiological measures of auditory processing, and understanding speech-in-noise deficits in clinical populations. Dr. Miller’s publications explore topics such as hearing aid efficacy in pediatric populations, noise-induced hearing loss prevention, and the effects of middle ear pressure on auditory measurements. Her work bridges clinical practice with cutting-edge research in audiological diagnostics, emphasizing translational applications for patient care. She is actively involved in interprofessional education initiatives, particularly training pharmacy students to address hearing loss in aging populations. Her academic contributions include advancing methodologies for detecting middle ear muscle activation and refining wideband acoustic immittance techniques. Dr. Miller also advocates for public health initiatives to raise awareness about noise-induced hearing loss among commuters and occupational groups.
Andrew West is a researcher affiliated with the University of Manchester, contributing to the Dalton Nuclear Institute. His work focuses on advancing robotics and autonomous systems for nuclear environments, particularly in radiation detection, mobile robot navigation, and hazardous environment exploration. Key areas include radiation mapping, sensor integration, and risk assessment in nuclear facilities. He has developed specialized robots like CARMA II and Vega for nuclear surveying and decommissioning tasks. Collaborations span international institutions such as JSI and LUNL, with datasets publicly available via Figshare. His research aligns with UN Sustainable Development Goals related to sustainable energy and industry innovation. Education: Background in robotics and nuclear engineering, though specific degrees are not detailed in the text. Research interests emphasize the practical application of robotics in nuclear decommissioning, including real-time radiation avoidance, sensor fusion, and multi-robot ecosystems. His work bridges theoretical modeling (e.g., Gaussian process regression) with practical field deployments, ensuring robots can safely operate in high-risk environments. Publications highlight advancements in radiation localization, sensor calibration (e.g., angular responses), and safety protocols for autonomous systems. The top-cited works focus on multimodal sensing and digital twin platforms for nuclear robot fleets, showcasing industry-academia partnerships. Grants & Projects: Contributions to projects like TORONE (Total Characterisation of Nuclear Environments) and the development of open-source platforms like Mona robot. West’s lab focuses on creating affordable, robust robotic solutions for nuclear challenges, with datasets publicly accessible to foster collaborative research.
Julie E. Cumming serves as Professor in the Department of Music at McGill University's Schulich School of Music, currently on sabbatical for the 2024-2025 academic year. Her distinguished career at McGill began in 1992 following seven years at Wellesley College, with significant leadership roles including Interim Dean (2016-2017) and Associate Dean of Research and Administration (2011-2016). BA in Music and Medieval Studies, Barnard College, Columbia University (1980) MA in Musicology, University of California, Berkeley (1982) PhD in Musicology and Medieval Studies, University of California, Berkeley (1987) A leading scholar in Medieval and Renaissance musicology, Professor Cumming's research encompasses polyphonic analysis, historical improvisation, music notation (1100-1600), and digital humanities applications. Her groundbreaking work includes re-examining madrigal origins through empirical evidence and mapping 16th-century musical transmission across cultures. She pioneered computational musicology through the ELVIS project, creating the first large-scale data-driven analysis of musical style. Her recent publications demonstrate an innovative fusion of traditional musicological methods with cognitive science and big data approaches, particularly in analyzing compositional processes and musical cognition in Renaissance contexts. Current projects focus on distributed cognition in early modern performance practices and developing international metadata standards for musical sources through the LinkedMusic initiative. Professor Cumming has received multiple prestigious teaching awards: Schulich School of Music Full-Time Teaching Award (2007) McGill’s David Thomson Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching and Supervision (2015) Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools Teaching Award, doctoral level (2017) She has supervised over 20 PhD dissertations on diverse topics including Renaissance counterpoint treatises, music and plague, and espionage in Elizabethan England, with former students now holding faculty positions at University of Toronto, University of Aberdeen, and Brandeis University. Her research funding includes: Principal Investigator: Digging into Data Challenge Grant "ELVIS" (2012-2014) Co-investigator: SSHRC Major Collaborative Research Initiative "Making Publics" (2005-2010) Co-leader: SSHRC Partnership Grant "SIMSSA" (2014-2023) Co-investigator: SSHRC Partnership Grant "LinkedMusic" Professor Cumming co-founded and leads the SIMSSA research team, an international consortium developing open-source tools for music score analysis and source linking, while directing the ELVIS project's continued development of vertical interval succession databases for Renaissance music analysis.
Caroline Palmer is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at McGill University and holds the Distinguished James McGill Professorship in Cognitive Neuroscience of Performance. She directs the NSERC-CREATE training grant in Complex Dynamics and is an Associate Member of the Schulich School of Music. Her research focuses on understanding how music influences human behavior, particularly through auditory-motor synchronization, nonlinear dynamics, and temporal coordination in ensemble performance. She explores how rhythmic patterns in music and speech engage attention, memory, and emotion, with applications to social interaction and health. Key research themes include the role of endogenous rhythms in interpersonal synchronization, the physiological effects of musical engagement, and the dynamics of human-machine collaboration. Awards include Fellowship in the Royal Society of Canada. Her work integrates neuroscience, psychology, and computational modeling to explain how music shapes human movement and social connection. Grants and collaborations include leadership in interdisciplinary training programs and partnerships with the Schulich School of Music. She maintains the Sequence Production Lab, investigating neural and behavioral mechanisms underlying skilled performance. Recent studies highlight music's impact on cardiac dynamics, respiratory synchrony, and dyadic coordination in social contexts.
Martin Corley is a Professor of Speech, Language, and Cognition and Head of Psychology at the University of Edinburgh's School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences. He holds a full-time academic position and has been affiliated with the University of Edinburgh since 1995, after completing his PhD at the University of Exeter. His research focuses on speech production and comprehension, particularly the role of disfluencies (e.g., 'um,' 'er,' silent pauses) in communication, employing methods like eye-tracking, EEG, and ultrasound imaging. Corley teaches courses such as the MSc in Univariate Statistics and Methodology using R. He currently supervises PhD students Wei Li (Lead), Esperanza Badaya (Lead), and Nora Wolf (Secondary). His work has led to over 50 publications, including studies on scalar quantifier interpretation, deception detection, and the cognitive processing of non-literal language. He is actively involved in academic recruitment, recently advertising a teaching-focused Lecturer position in Psychology. Corley’s research interests span psycholinguistics, cognitive science, and neurolinguistics, with a focus on real-time language processing and social reasoning. He collaborates internationally and maintains a Google Scholar profile and personal website (martincorley.org). His Erdős number is 4, indicating academic collaboration proximity to Paul Erdős.
Salomi Asaridou is a Lecturer at the University of Oxford's Department of Experimental Psychology and a Stipendiary Lecturer in Psychology at St Anne's College. She holds a PhD from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics and Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, supported by a Max Planck Society fellowship. Her research focuses on individual variation in language learning and its neural correlates, particularly in children with developmental language disorder (DLD). She investigates how brain structure and function relate to language abilities in monolinguals, bilinguals, and clinical populations. Education: Bachelor’s in Psychology (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) Master’s in Neuroscience and Education (Columbia University, Fulbright Scholar) PhD in Psycholinguistics (Max Planck Institute) Research Groups: Brain, Speech, & Language; MRC-funded BOLD study. Her work explores neural mechanisms underlying language disorders and brain reorganization in cases of congenital hemispheric defects. She has contributed to NIH-funded projects at the University of California, Irvine, and uses neuroimaging techniques to study cortical and subcortical structures in language development. Awards include the Fulbright Scholarship and Max Planck IMPRS Fellowship. Salomi teaches Experimental Design and Methods at Oxford and actively collaborates with interdisciplinary teams to advance understanding of language neurobiology.
Randall W. Engle is a Professor of Psychology at the Georgia Institute of Technology, specializing in cognitive processes related to working memory and attention control. His research investigates individual differences in executive functions, linking these to fluid intelligence and neurological mechanisms. Engle has contributed significantly to understanding the role of attention control in complex cognitive tasks and its applications in high-stakes testing and military selection processes. Education: Ph.D. (1973) in Experimental Psychology from The Ohio State University. Research Interests: Focus on working memory capacity, attention control mechanisms, and their neural underpinnings, particularly involving dopamine regulation in frontal lobes. He has developed influential theories on how attention control mediates cognitive performance. Recent work emphasizes applied aspects, such as improving predictive accuracy in navy trainee performance and refining measurement tools for attention control. His lab (Attention & Working Memory Lab) collaborates on interdisciplinary projects involving neuroscience and education. Labs/Teams: Director of the Attention & Working Memory Lab at Georgia Tech, fostering graduate student research in cognitive psychology and neuroscience.
Prof. Jan Gründemann is a researcher affiliated with the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE). His work focuses on understanding neural mechanisms of multisensory integration, particularly in deep brain areas. He combines advanced circuit neuroscience tools like opto/pharmacogenetics with imaging techniques to study how sensory inputs are processed during learning and memory formation. Research Interests: Deep brain imaging methodologies Neural coding principles in associative learning Multisensory integration in health and disease Thalamocortical and amygdala circuit dynamics Publications highlight investigations into auditory thalamus plasticity, amygdala ensemble coding, and neural ensembles underlying long-term memory. His work bridges computational neuroscience with experimental approaches to decode brain mechanisms governing behavior.
Fan Gang Zeng is a Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), and Director of the Center for Hearing Research. His academic roles span multiple disciplines, including joint appointments in Anatomy & Neurobiology, Biomedical Engineering (BME), Cognitive Sciences, and SOM-Administration. His research focuses on auditory neuroscience, cochlear implants, tinnitus, and speech perception, with a particular emphasis on improving hearing restoration technologies and understanding neural mechanisms of hearing loss. Affiliations: Director, Center for Hearing Research Member, UCI Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders (UCI MIND) NIH-funded investigator through grants like R01 DC015587 Research Interests: Professor Zeng’s work bridges engineering and neuroscience, addressing challenges in cochlear implant optimization, tinnitus biomarkers, and speech intelligibility. Key areas include: Noninvasive ear stimulation for tinnitus suppression Cochlear implant artifact attenuation techniques Cognitive correlates of auditory brainstem responses Speech processing algorithms for hearing aids and implants Grants & Funding: His research is supported by NIH grants and industry partnerships, including collaborations with companies like Axonics, Nurotron, and Syntiant. He holds patents related to cochlear implant design and neural stimulation technologies. Labs & Teams: The Center for Hearing Research at UCI integrates multidisciplinary teams to advance audiological innovations, with a focus on translating basic science into clinical applications.
David Poeppel is a Professor of Psychology and Neural Science at New York University (NYU), affiliated with the College of Arts and Science. He holds a PhD and BS from MIT, with postdoctoral training at UCSF. His research focuses on auditory cognition, speech perception, and the neural basis of language, employing techniques like MEG, EEG, and fMRI. Key interests include the temporal dynamics of speech processing, neurophysiological mechanisms of lexical access, and multisensory integration in language. Education: PhD (1995) and BS (1990) in Psychology/Cognitive Science from MIT. Positions include Professorships at NYU (2009–present) and University of Maryland (1998–2009). Awards include a 2004 American Academy Fellowship and a 2003–2004 Berlin Wissenschaftskolleg Fellowship. Research trends emphasize neural entrainment to speech structures, auditory-motor coupling, and the interplay between perception and production. Recent work explores how temporal rhythms shape auditory processing and how brain rhythms predict speech tracking variability. The Poeppel Lab also investigates musical perception and the neural underpinnings of vocal emotion. Publications span over 200 peer-reviewed articles, with recent contributions on spectrotemporal modulation, neural chunking in language, and the role of amplitude modulation in distinguishing speech from music. His work bridges cognitive science, neuroscience, and clinical applications, such as stuttering mechanisms and speech rehabilitation.
Prof Peter Tyack is a Research-Focused Professor at the School of Biology, University of St Andrews, with affiliations to the Scottish Oceans Institute and Centre for Social Learning & Cognitive Evolution. His work spans marine mammal bioacoustics, behavioral ecology, and conservation biology. UN Sustainable Development Goals: 14 (Life Below Water), 13 (Climate Action) Collaborations: USA, Norway, UK institutions Research focuses on vocal learning evolution in mammals , cetacean communication systems , and anthropogenic noise impacts on marine wildlife. His lab develops novel methods for continuous behavioral sampling in field conditions. Recent publications examine porpoise echolocation masking by vessel noise, neural connectivity differences in whales, and marine mammal welfare monitoring . Over 258 publications reflect his extensive work in marine bioacoustics and conservation physiology. Scientific Awards Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2016) Supervises PhD students including Gabrielle Arrieta and Dinah Hartmann. Active in marine policy advisory roles and has participated in 80+ professional activities including invited talks and workshops.
Elkan Akyürek is a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and Chair of the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Groningen. He leads a research group focused on understanding the neural mechanisms underlying working memory, temporal integration, and attention. His work employs EEG, behavioral experiments, and computational modeling to explore how sensory information is integrated, maintained, and processed in the brain. He has been instrumental in advancing methodologies like impulse perturbation and concealed information testing, with applications in cognitive neuroscience and forensic psychology. Research interests center on cognitive neuroscience, particularly in the domains of working memory maintenance, temporal processing, and the neural correlates of conscious awareness. He investigates how attention modulates perception and memory, with a focus on adaptive mechanisms in visual and auditory systems. His lab also explores the effects of nutritional interventions (e.g., cocoa flavanols) on cognitive performance. Recent research highlights include studies on concealed information detection using EEG and eye-tracking, adaptive forgetting dynamics in working memory, and the neural basis of temporal integration. His work has been published in high-impact journals like *Nature Neuroscience*, *Psychological Review*, and *NeuroImage*, and he has secured grants from the Dutch Science Foundation (NWO) and the Police and Science program. Dr. Akyürek has supervised numerous PhD students and postdocs, fostering collaborations with institutions globally. He is actively involved in science outreach, including educational initiatives to demystify cognitive neuroscience for secondary students. His lab’s interdisciplinary approach integrates psychology, neuroscience, and computational modeling to address fundamental questions about human cognition.
Associate Professor John Semmler is affiliated with the School of Biomedicine at the University of Adelaide's Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences. His research focuses on the neurophysiology of human movement, particularly using non-invasive brain stimulation techniques to study motor control across the lifespan. He leads an internationally recognized team investigating aging, exercise, and neurological injury effects on brain plasticity and motor function. Semmler holds senior administrative roles, including Discipline Lead in Physiology and President of the Australasian Brain Stimulation Society. Education: Not explicitly stated in provided texts. Research Funding: Over $3.6M in grants from NIH, ARC, and NHMRC, including recent ARC Discovery Projects and infrastructure awards. Teaching: Leads courses in Physiology, Neuromotor Control, and Medical Sciences, contributing to program design and curriculum mapping. His research interests emphasize brain oscillations, motor learning, and translational neurorehabilitation. Projects explore gamma and theta brain rhythms, exercise-induced neuroplasticity, and interventions for older adults' motor deficits. Semmler has mentored numerous PhD students and externally funded fellows, with a focus on bridging basic science and clinical applications. Grants & Funding Highlights: ARC DP250101672 ($574,888): Synchronised brain oscillations and motor function in older adults (2025–2028) NIH & NHMRC grants: Investigating plasticity mechanisms in aging and neurological conditions Lab & Team: Director of the Neurophysiology of Human Movement Group, focusing on non-invasive brain stimulation and clinical translation.
Eli Renate Grüner is a Professor at the University of Bergen's Department of Physics and Technology, with joint affiliations at Haukeland University Hospital. Her research focuses on advancing medical imaging techniques, particularly MRI-based methods for studying brain function, perfusion dynamics, and neurodegenerative disorders. She collaborates extensively with clinical researchers to translate imaging innovations into diagnostic applications. Grüner's interdisciplinary work bridges physics, neuroscience, and clinical medicine, developing analytical tools to quantify cerebral blood flow, neurotransmitter systems, and metabolic processes. Her neuroimaging research examines brain network dynamics, alcohol's effects on cognition, and pathological mechanisms in conditions like dementia and Tourette syndrome. Her publications demonstrate expertise in perfusion imaging algorithms, fMRI analysis, and spectroscopic methods. Recent work includes developing visualization tools for spectroscopy data and investigating network switching during cognitive processing.
