Find Academic Supervisors

Sara Ng is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics at Western Washington University. She holds a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Washington (2024) and an MS in Computational Linguistics (2023), alongside a B.A. in Linguistics and B.S. in Applied Mathematics from the University of Utah (2017). Her research focuses on computational models of prosody, speech perception, and their integration with speech technologies like automatic speech recognition (ASR). She investigates how prosody conveys pragmatic meaning, influences conversational dynamics, and impacts listeners with hearing impairments. Her work bridges computational methods and linguistic theory, addressing challenges in clinical and technological applications. Education PhD in Linguistics, University of Washington, 2024 MS in Computational Linguistics, University of Washington, 2023 B.A. in Linguistics (Honors), B.S. in Applied Mathematics, University of Utah, 2017 Research Interests Ng’s research explores computational linguistics, prosody modeling, speech technology, and hearing impairment studies. She develops methods to leverage prosodic cues for tasks like punctuation prediction and investigates the impact of hearing loss on speech perception. Grants & Awards 2024: Nominated for UW Excellence in Teaching Award 2023: Excellence in Linguistic Research Graduate Fellowship 2017: University of Utah Top Scholar Award Teaching Ng teaches courses in phonetics, computational linguistics, and linguistics for honors students. She emphasizes pedagogical innovation and inclusivity, with experience as an instructor of record and teaching assistant at both Western Washington University and the University of Washington. Labs & Collaborations She collaborates with the TIAL Lab (University of Washington), Phonetics Lab, Hearing Aid Laboratory (Northwestern University), and CLILLAC-ARP (Université Paris Cité). Her work intersects with clinical and engineering domains, addressing real-world applications of speech technology.

• Computational Linguistics
• Speech Prosody
• Phonetics
• +6 more

Professor Bernd Möbius is a leading academic in Phonetics and Phonology at the Department of Language Science and Technology, Saarland University. His research bridges phonetic theory with speech technology applications, focusing on text-to-speech systems, prosody modeling, and computational simulations of speech processes. Current research projects: DFG SFB 1102, C1: Information density and phonetic structure predictability DFG SFB 1102, C4: Slavic intercomprehension and surprisal theory (INCOMSLAV) Research Themes: Key areas include text-to-speech synthesis, speech prosody analysis, experimental methods in speech production/perception, information density in phonetics, and cross-linguistic studies of Slavic-Germanic languages. Scientific Contributions: Recent work explores Parkinson-induced dysarthria detection, breath noise acoustics, surprisal-driven speech behaviors, multilingual BERT models for idiomaticity, and perceptual consequences of acoustic adjustments.

• Speech Technology
• Phonetics
• Phonology
• +8 more

Jianjing Kuang is an Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania, affiliated with the School of Arts and Sciences. As Director of the Penn Phonetics Laboratory, they lead research in phonetics, laboratory phonology, and tonal language studies. Kuang holds a Ph.D. from UCLA (2013) and specializes in the interplay between production and perception in speech, particularly focusing on tonal systems, prosody, and cross-linguistic fieldwork. Their work integrates behavioral experiments, corpus studies, and computational modeling to explore phonological contrasts, voice quality, and sound change. Key affiliations include MindCORE and the Center for East Asian Studies. Research interests include multidimensional cues in tone processing, glottal articulations, mapping production-perception relationships, and prosodic sentence processing. Kuang has conducted fieldwork on languages such as Yi, Q’anjob’al, and Mandarin. Their studies address topics like tonal splitting in Yi, cue-changing in Korean stops, and prosodic patterns in Mayan languages. Recent work explores voice quality’s role in pitch perception and prosodic boundary detection. Awards and grants are not explicitly listed, but Kuang’s extensive publications (over 50 peer-reviewed papers) reflect sustained academic impact. They advise graduate students in phonetics and phonology, with active collaborations in computational linguistics and speech technology. The Penn Phonetics Laboratory, under Kuang’s direction, emphasizes interdisciplinary research bridging experimental and theoretical phonetics.

• Phonetics
• Tonal Languages
• Speech Production and Perception
• +4 more

John Kingston is a Professor of Linguistics and Director of the Phonetics Lab at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he has been since 1990. He holds a BA and MA from the University of Chicago (1976–1977) and a PhD from UC Berkeley (1985). His research focuses on the interplay between phonetics and phonology, particularly speech perception and its influence on phonological representations. He co-founded the Laboratory Phonology Conference series in 1987 and has conducted fieldwork on Otomanguean languages. His work emphasizes experimental methods to study phonological questions, including studies on vowel perception, tone systems, and cross-linguistic phonetic patterns. Kingston’s academic journey includes roles at the University of Texas, Austin (1984–1986) and Cornell University (1986–1990). His research explores how auditory processing and linguistic knowledge shape speech perception, with notable contributions to understanding tonogenesis, perceptual contrast effects, and vowel category learning in second languages. He collaborates on grants examining Ganong effects and phonological inventories, advocating for theories that bridge perceptual and structural aspects of language. His lab, the Phonetics Lab, supports experimental work on speech perception and production. Kingston is also the Honors Program Coordinator, mentoring students in linguistics and related fields. Despite no explicit awards listed, his extensive publications and conference leadership reflect his scholarly impact.

• Phonetics
• Phonology
• Speech Perception
• +4 more

Niclas Abrahamsson is a Professor of Swedish as a Second Language at Stockholm University, where he also serves as the Director of the Centre for Research on Bilingualism . His research focuses on second language acquisition (SLA) , bilingualism , and phonological/phonetic development , particularly through the lens of age of acquisition and critical periods . He leads the MOB (Meta-research on Bilingualism) group, analyzing trends in bilingualism research and Swedish as a Second Language. PhD in Bilingualism (2001, Stockholm University) BA in Linguistics, Phonetics, and Psychology (1993) His research explores how age of onset and language aptitude influence nativelike attainment in L2 speakers, with a focus on voice onset time (VOT) analysis, neural constraints , and lexical deficits in bilinguals. His recent studies challenge the notion that bilingualism inherently causes linguistic costs, attributing observed deficits instead to second language acquisition processes. Abrahamsson has secured major grants from the Swedish Research Council (VR) , Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation (RJ) , and Byggmästare Olle Engqvists Stiftelse . He supervises PhD students working on topics like Swedish compounding acquisition , language-dependent memory , and foreign accented speech perception . He teaches SLA, bilingual development, and psycholinguistics at all academic levels. Key Awards : VR Grant 2016-01630, RJ Sabbatical Grant SAB16-0051:1, Byggmästare Olle Engqvists Stiftelse Grant 200-0676 Abrahamsson's work frequently employs ERP studies and meta-analyses , emphasizing methodological rigor. He collaborates with institutions like the Multilingualism Lab and has contributed to foundational theories in critical period hypothesis and language aptitude research.

• Second Language Acquisition (SLA)
• Bilingualism Research
• Phonetics and Phonology
• +7 more

Jeffrey Heinz is a Professor at Stony Brook University, with a joint appointment in the Department of Linguistics and the Institute for Advanced Computational Science. He holds a Ph.D. from UCLA (2007) and previously served on the faculty at the University of Delaware from 2007–2017. His research bridges theoretical linguistics, computational learning theory, and formal language models, focusing on phonology, linguistic typology, and grammatical inference. He has contributed to influential works on computational phonology and edited volumes on topics like phonological stress and learning theory. Key academic achievements include the 2017 Linguistic Society of America Early Career Award for contributions to computational inference in language. His work emphasizes the intersection of formal models and empirical linguistics, with applications to reduplication, phonological processes, and machine learning benchmarks like MLRegTest. Heinz has co-authored a book on grammatical inference and guest-edited special issues in Machine Learning and Phonology . His research also extends to interdisciplinary applications, such as modeling human-robot interaction and pediatric motor rehabilitation through grammatical inference techniques.

• Theoretical Linguistics
• Computational Learning Theory
• Phonology
• +3 more

Cristina Baus Marquez is a Research Fellow at the University of Barcelona's Faculty of Psychology, affiliated with the Department of Cognition, Development, and Educational Psychology. She holds a Ramon y Cajal Research Fellowship (2020–2025) and leads research in the Brain Dynamics and Structure of Human Cognition (BraCo) group. Her work focuses on cognitive neuroscience, bilingualism, and language processing, with a particular emphasis on electrophysiological and behavioral studies of language production, perception, and social cognition. Education: Bachelor's Degree (Llicenciatura) in Psychology, University of Barcelona (2003) PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience and Specific Educational Needs, Universidad de La Laguna (2010) Research Interests include the neural mechanisms underlying bilingual speech production, cross-modal language interactions, and how linguistic experience shapes perception of faces and voices. She employs EEG/ERP techniques to study self-monitoring processes in bilinguals and investigates the role of iconicity in sign language production. Key Projects: Ramón y Cajal Fellowship (2020–2025): Investigates verbal interactions and learning mechanisms Fundación BIAL Grant (2017–2019): Explored electrophysiology of bimodal bilingualism AGAUR Grant (2018–2020): Studied verbal interactions' cognitive mechanisms Labs/Teams: Active member of the BraCo research group, collaborating internationally on multilingualism and cognitive neuroscience projects.

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Bilingualism
• Language Processing
• +3 more

Felicitas Kleber is Professor of Speech Science in the Department of Language Science and Technology at Saarland University (Universität des Saarlandes). Her research profile demonstrates extensive expertise in experimental phonetics and laboratory phonology with a particular focus on German dialects and sound change phenomena. She maintains active research collaborations, most notably with J. Harrington and Ulrich Reubold, resulting in numerous high-impact publications in leading linguistics and phonetics journals. Her research interests span experimental phonetics and laboratory phonology with specific expertise in speech production and perception , sound change processes, German dialectology , phonological acquisition , and prosody and intonation analysis. Her work frequently examines the acoustic, perceptual, and articulatory dimensions of speech, particularly focusing on vowel and consonant quantity phenomena in German varieties. Analysis of her publication record reveals consistent methodological rigor with emphasis on acoustic analysis, perception experiments, and longitudinal studies. Her research often investigates sound changes in progress, particularly examining vowel fronting phenomena in both German and English varieties, and the relationship between speech production and perception mechanisms. Much of her work employs apparent-time analyses to track diachronic changes through synchronic variation across age groups. Professor Kleber serves as an Associate editor for the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, reflecting her standing in the field. She has secured significant research funding including the DFG-funded project "Typology of vowel and consonant quantity in South German varieties: acoustic, auditory, and articulatory analyses of adult and child speakers" (2016-2024) and the DAAD-supported "Form and function of prosodic structure in Hungarian and German" (2015-2016). Her research methodology typically combines acoustic analysis with perception experiments and sometimes articulatory measurements to provide comprehensive insights into phonetic phenomena.

• experimental phonetics
• laboratory phonology
• speech production and perception
• +7 more

Jose Ignacio Hualde is a Professor at the University of Illinois, holding joint appointments in Spanish and Portuguese, Linguistics, French and Italian, the European Union Center, and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. His research focuses on synchronic and diachronic phonology, sound change, prosody, and Romance and Basque linguistics. He is affiliated with the Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese and maintains an office in the Foreign Languages Building. Research Interests: Phonological structure and historical evolution Basque linguistic typology and dialectology Prosodic systems in Romance languages Phonetic-phonological interfaces Recent Research Trends: His 2023-2025 publications emphasize Basque dialect analysis, Romance allophonic processes, and prosodic salience. Works combine experimental methods with diachronic reconstruction to address core questions in phonological theory. Professional Activities: Has delivered over 30 invited lectures (e.g., 1992-1996) and served on editorial boards like Folia Linguistica. Active in international scholarly networks with collaboration evidence across multiple countries. Labs/Teams: Engaged in interdisciplinary linguistic research through the Department's language programs and affiliated centers.

• Phonology
• Historical Linguistics
• Sound Change
• +3 more

Nuria Sebastian Galles is a Full Professor at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), affiliated with the Department of Engineering and the UPF Center of Studies in Natural and Artificial Intelligence. Her career includes roles as Associate Professor (University of Barcelona, 1988-2002) and Full Professor (since 2002). She leads the Speech Acquisition and Perception (SAP) Research Group and coordinates major projects such as the BRAINGLOT consortium on bilingualism and cognitive neuroscience. Dr. Galles has received notable awards including the James S. McDonnell Foundation Award and ICREA Academia Prize, and served on the European Research Council Scientific Council. Her research focuses on cognitive neuroscience, bilingualism, and infant language development, leveraging EEG, brain imaging, and behavioral studies. Education: PhD in Experimental Psychology (University of Barcelona, 1986), postdoctoral training at Max Planck Institute and LSCP-CNRS (Paris). Visiting scholarships include University of Pennsylvania, University College London, and University of Chicago. Research Interests: Bilingualism's impact on cognition, neurobiological foundations of language acquisition, infant speech perception, and social cognition. Current projects include ERC-funded studies on attention-language links and cognitive effects of walnut consumption in adolescents. Publications: Over 100 peer-reviewed articles in journals like Science , PNAS , and Developmental Science , with a focus on bilingualism, phonetic categorization, and social hierarchy processing in infants. Editor of Developmental Science and Language Learning and Development . Grants & Teams: ERC Advanced Grant (Under Control), Consolider-Ingenio 2010 (BRAINGLOT). Lab collaborations include multi-country studies on traffic pollution’s cognitive impact and walnut-based dietary interventions.

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Bilingualism
• Infant Cognition
• +3 more

Spencer Caplan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the CUNY Graduate Center. He directs the Psycholinguistics Lab, contributes to the Cognitive Science affiliation, and is the interim director of the master's program in computational linguistics through Fall 2025. Research Interests: His work integrates linguistics, computation, and cognition, focusing on language acquisition and processing. He develops computational and algorithmic models of language learning and mental representation, while also employing experimental methods such as eye-tracking, parsing, categorization, and perceptual learning. His research applies quantitative, corpus, and statistical techniques to address questions in theoretical linguistics. Secondary interests include Chinese languages, cognitive psychology (attention, memory, learning), formal language theory, NLP, phonology, and software engineering. Publication Trends: His recent publications appear in high-impact journals like PLOS One , Psychological Science , Cognition , PNAS , and Glossa . The work spans computational modeling of language learning, experimental investigations of linguistic computation, and corpus-based syntactic analysis, reflecting a strong interdisciplinary approach combining theoretical insight with empirical and quantitative rigor. Scientific Affiliations and Mentors: Ph.D. Advisor Team: Charles Yang, John Trueswell, Mitch Marcus Undergraduate Mentor: Eugene Charniak Collaborators: Deniz Beser, Kajsa Djärv, Neal Fox, Doug Guilbeault, Alon Hafri, Jordan Kodner, Eric Mandelbaum, Griffin Pion, Jake Quilty-Dunn, Katie Schuler, Elliot Schwartz, Hongzhi Xu, Chen Yu Advising and Grants: While specific advising and grant records are not detailed in the text, his leadership roles (lab director, interim program director) and active publication record suggest significant involvement in mentoring students and securing research support. His GitHub repositories indicate ongoing, computationally intensive research projects. Labs and Teams: He leads the Psycholinguistics Lab at CUNY Graduate Center and has been affiliated with the Language Learning Lab at the University of Pennsylvania and the Developmental Intelligence Lab at the University of Texas at Austin.

• Computational Linguistics
• Psycholinguistics
• Language Acquisition
• +13 more

Diogo Almeida is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Global Network Associate Professor of Psychology at New York University Abu Dhabi. His research focuses on neurolinguistics and language processing, employing methodologies such as MEG/EEG, fMRI, and cross-linguistic studies. He holds an MSc in Cognitive Science from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and an PhD in Linguistics from the University of Maryland, College Park. Prior to NYU Abu Dhabi, he held positions at the University of California, Irvine, and Michigan State University. Almeida’s research explores perceptual processes underlying language understanding, including syntactic structure processing, agreement phenomena, and the neural bases of lexical access. His work integrates behavioral experiments with neuroimaging techniques to investigate how linguistic structures are represented in the brain. Key areas include sentence processing selectivity in Broca’s area, cross-linguistic differences in agreement encoding, and the role of phonological and morphological features in real-time language comprehension. His publications span topics like masked priming effects, sociolinguistic influences on speech perception, and the reliability of experimental syntax methods. He leads the Language, Mind and Brain research group at NYU Abu Dhabi, focusing on interdisciplinary approaches to language cognition. Almeida has contributed to debates on empirical rigor in syntax, advocating for robust experimental designs and large-scale data collection to validate theoretical claims.

• Neurolinguistics
• Language Processing
• Cognitive Science
• +3 more

Rory Turnbull is a Senior Lecturer in Phonetics and Phonology at Newcastle University’s School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics. His career spans roles as Assistant Professor at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and Postdoctoral Researcher at the Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et Psycholinguistique in Paris. He holds a PhD in Linguistics from Ohio State University and an MA (Hons) in Linguistics and English Language from the University of Edinburgh. Education PhD in Linguistics, Ohio State University (2015) MA (Hons) in English Language and Linguistics, University of Edinburgh (2009) Rory’s research bridges phonetics, phonology, and psycholinguistics, focusing on how frequency, predictability, and usage-based factors shape linguistic sound structures. His work emphasizes cross-linguistic studies to address limitations in single-language research, with projects on lexical organization, prosodic contrasts, and their perception-production dynamics. His recent publications highlight methodological pluralism, including experimental phonetics, computational models, and theoretical phonology. Topics span phonological networks, dialectal variation, L2 sound processing, and prosody’s interaction with cognition. Rory co-convenes Newcastle’s Cross-Faculty Phonetics and Phonology Research Group and coordinates the Language and Linguistics Seminar Series. He serves on the editorial board of Glossa Psycholinguistics and contributes to open science initiatives.

• Experimental Phonetics
• French Linguistics
• Laboratory Phonology
• +8 more

Professor Jennifer Hay is a Professor of Linguistics in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, where she has been employed since July 2000. She serves as Director of the New Zealand Institute of Language, Brain and Behaviour and is actively involved in collaborative interdisciplinary research projects within the institute. Professor Hay's primary research interests focus on New Zealand English, sociophonetics, laboratory phonology, and morphology. Her work explores how language varies and changes across speakers and contexts, with particular attention to the relationship between speech production and perception. She investigates how social factors influence linguistic patterns and how listeners adapt to different accents and speech styles. Her research combines laboratory methods with corpus-based analysis to address theoretical questions about language structure and use. Her publication record demonstrates consistent contributions to understanding language variation, especially in New Zealand English. Recent work examines vowel covariation, the influence of music on speech perception, and the implicit knowledge of Māori among non-Māori speakers. She has published over 280 scholarly works, with numerous publications in high-impact journals including Language, Journal of Phonetics, and Laboratory Phonology. Rutherford Discovery Fellowship (2010) - $1,000,000 to fund research on Episodic Word Memory (2011-2016) Founding Member, Association for Laboratory Phonology (2010) Fellow of the Center for the Advanced Study of the Behavioral Sciences, Palo Alto Professor Hay actively supervises numerous graduate students, with recent projects focusing on topics such as language variation in Christchurch schools, audience design in police shows, loanword phonology, and the perception of nonbinary speech. She has secured multiple competitive grants from the Royal Society of New Zealand, including current funding for projects on Māori word categories, implicit grammar learning, and vowel sequences in te reo Māori through 2028. As Director of the New Zealand Institute of Language, Brain and Behaviour, Professor Hay leads an interdisciplinary team of researchers investigating language processing, acquisition, and variation. Her collaborative approach has fostered partnerships across linguistics, psychology, and cognitive science to advance understanding of how language works in the human mind and society.

• New Zealand English
• sociophonetics
• laboratory phonology
• +3 more

Annette D'Onofrio is an Associate Professor in the Linguistics Department at Northwestern University. Her research bridges sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics, focusing on how social meaning is constructed through phonetic variation. She investigates topics like raciolinguistic expectations, geographic dialect features, and the cognitive representation of sociolinguistic signs. Key research areas include phonetic perception in bilingual contexts, the interplay between language ideologies and place-linked variation (e.g., Chicago Jewish communities), and the role of persona in shaping linguistic perception. Her work often employs experimental methods to explore how social information influences phonetic categorization and speech evaluation. Recent studies examine geographic dialect perceptions in New Orleans, the dynamics of the Northern Cities Shift in Chicago, and the sociophonetic analysis of presidential campaign rhetoric. Her research also addresses iconicity in phonological variation and the cognitive underpinnings of sociolinguistic signs. Though no specific grants or advising roles are listed, her work consistently highlights the intersection of social identity and linguistic structure. She holds a PhD in Linguistics and maintains a Google Scholar profile with over 20 peer-reviewed articles since 2012.

• Sociolinguistics
• Phonetics
• Psycholinguistics
• +4 more