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.
Bistra Andreeva is a full Professor of Phonetics and Phonology at Saarland University, Department of Language Science and Technology. She is also a principal investigator of the DFG-funded project “Judeo-Spanish in Bulgaria: a contact language between archaism and innovation” (2022-2025) and leads or co-leads several other externally funded projects on prosody, information structure, and language contact. She teaches and has taught at Saarland University, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, and other European universities. Education & Academic Background Habilitation (kumulative Habilitationsschrift): “Contrastive Prosody: Bulgarian vs. German”, Saarland University, 2016. PhD (Dr. phil.): “Zur Phonetik und Phonologie der Intonation der Sofioter-Varietät des Bulgarischen”, Saarland University, 2007. Research Interests Andreeva’s research focuses on the phonetics and phonology of intonation and rhythm, cross-language and individual differences in the production and perception of syllabic prominence, the relation between intonation and information structure, minority languages (especially Judeo-Spanish in Bulgaria), and the interaction between information density and prosodic structure. Her methodological expertise includes experimental phonetics, corpus-based studies, and acoustic analysis. Major Projects SFB 1102 C1: “Information Density and the Predictability of Phonetic Structure” (DFG, 2014-2026) JuSpa: “Judeo-Spanish in Bulgaria: a contact language between archaism and innovation” (DFG, 2022-2025) Prosodic aspects of Bulgarian compared to other languages with lexical stress (Bulgarian National Science Fund, 2019-2024) Prosodic manifestations of focus in French and English from a Bulgarian point of view (DAAD & Sofia University, 2021-2023) Scientific Awards & Recognition While no major named prizes are listed, Andreeva’s work has been continuously supported by competitive grants from the German Research Foundation (DFG), DAAD, and Bulgarian National Science Fund. Her publications appear in top-tier journals and conference proceedings (Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Interspeech, Speech Prosody, International Congress of Phonetic Sciences). Teaching & Supervision She offers a broad spectrum of courses including Experimental Phonetics, Prosody, Phonetics & Phonology of Slavic Languages, Introduction to Instrumental Phonetics, and seminars on language contact. She has supervised numerous BA, MA, and PhD theses and regularly teaches at the PhD School of Sofia University. Labs & Teams She is affiliated with the Phonetics Laboratory at Saarland University and collaborates closely with the Institute for Bulgarian Language (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences), working in interdisciplinary teams involving phoneticians, computational linguists, and field linguists.
Dr. Stefanie Jannedy is a senior researcher at the Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft (ZAS) in Berlin, where she has been employed since 2008. She is a Principal Investigator of the DFG project C02 "Variation in Situated Interaction" within the Collaborative Research Center 1412 (CRC 1412) on "Register: Language-Users' Knowledge of Situational-Functional Variation." As a member of the Laboratory Phonology Group, her work focuses on sociophonetic aspects of language variation. Dr. Jannedy's research centers on language register, phonetic variation, and sociolinguistic patterns in speech. Her work particularly examines how situational contexts influence phonetic detail in speech production, with a focus on intra-individual variation. She has developed innovative experimental methods, including smartphone applications like "Plapper" for self-recording speech data in controlled conditions. Her research spans formal and informal speech contexts, examining speech rate, vowel dispersion, filler particles, and other phonetic features that vary systematically across different communicative situations. Analysis of her publication record shows a strong focus on register variation, particularly how speakers systematically adjust their speech across different social contexts. Her work combines experimental methods with corpus-based approaches to investigate fine phonetic detail in relation to situational factors. Recent publications demonstrate increasing interdisciplinary connections between phonetics, sociolinguistics, and cognitive science in understanding register knowledge. Dr. Jannedy has advised several students including Schüppenhauer, Gediminas, Witt, Johannes, and Hong, Nhung-Le. Her research is primarily supported through the CRC 1412 framework, which represents a major collaborative effort in register studies. Her laboratory work involves experimental setups that simulate tele-conference interactions to systematically manipulate social contexts while measuring subtle phonetic differences. This methodological innovation allows for controlled examination of register variation that would be difficult to capture in naturalistic settings.
University Medical Center Hamburg-EppendorfGermany
Prof. Helen Blank is a Professor leading the Multisensory Perception Group and the Prediction in Communication Lab at the Institute for Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf. Her work focuses on understanding how sensory information is integrated and predicted in contexts like speech perception and face recognition. She holds a Marie Curie Fellowship for her research on prior information's role in human communication. Fluent in German, English, and French, she contributes to experimental medicine and systems neuroscience. Her research spans predictive coding, neuroimaging, and clinical applications in Parkinson’s and developmental disorders. Education: Not explicitly stated in text, inferred as advanced degrees in neuroscience or related fields. Her research interests emphasize multisensory integration, predictive processing in speech and vision, and the neural bases of perception. Recent articles explore topics such as pupil responses to auditory surprise, face expectation hierarchies, and audio-visual speech processing. Awards include the Marie Curie Fellowship supporting her predictive communication work. She leads interdisciplinary teams within the Center for Experimental Medicine, advancing knowledge on perceptual mechanisms and their clinical implications.
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.
Prof. Gerhard Jäger holds the Chair of General Linguistics at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Tübingen . He serves as a Principal Investigator (PI) in the Clusters of Excellence Human Origins and Machine Learning for Science , and leads projects like Phylomilia (funded by Volkswagen Foundation) and CrossLingference (ERC Advanced Grant). His career spans multiple institutions, including Bielefeld University (2004-2009) and Stanford University (visiting scholar, 2004). Habilitation (2002) at Humboldt University Berlin with thesis on Anaphora and Type Logical Grammar PhD (1996) at Humboldt University Berlin on Dynamic Semantics His research bridges computational linguistics , phylogenetic analysis , and game theory , focusing on Bayesian models , language evolution , and cross-linguistic typology . Recent work explores phylogenetic inference from acoustic speech data and geographic influences on language trees . Key contributions include 15+ recent publications on topics spanning phylogenetic typology , cognate detection , and Bayesian language modeling . These works employ machine learning , statistical inference , and evolutionary game theory to analyze language change , typological variation , and linguistic stability . Honors include ERC Advanced Grant , Volkswagen Foundation funding , and DFG-Humanities Centre for Advanced Studies participation. He has taught courses in Computational Historical Linguistics , Phylogenetic Methods , and Bayesian Data Analysis across institutions like Tübingen, Bielefeld, and Stanford. He actively contributes to academic communities through workshop organization (e.g., Quantitative Theoretical Linguistics , Game Theory in Pragmatics ) and serves on the faculty council at Tübingen. His team collaborates with institutions like Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology , University of Pennsylvania , and LMU Munich .
Dr. Jacek Kudera is a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Phonetics at the University of Trier, coordinator of the LODinG project at the Trier Center for Digital Humanities, and adjunct faculty at WSB Merito University in Wrocław. His work bridges phonetics, Slavic linguistics, digital humanities, and forensic speech science. Education 2022 – PhD, Department of Language Science and Technology, Saarland University, Germany 2019 – MA (Linguistics), Department of Linguistics, Cognitive Science and Semiotics, Aarhus University, Denmark 2015 – Magister (Slavic Philology), Institute of Slavic Studies, University of Wrocław, Poland Research Interests His research focuses on phonetic and prosodic aspects of Slavic languages , cross-linguistic speech perception , forensic automatic speaker recognition , and human-robot interaction . He employs experimental methods such as eye-tracking, articulatory measurements (EMA), and large-scale digital corpora to investigate how speakers of closely related languages understand one another and how machines can replicate or support this process. Publication Trends Across more than 25 peer-reviewed articles (2014-2025), Kudera has consistently explored Slavic intercomprehension , speech technology evaluation , and digital humanities infrastructure . Recent work (2024-2025) targets voice cloning security , linked open data for linguistics , and mismatch conditions in forensic speaker recognition . Scientific Awards & Fellowships Visegrad Fellowship, University of Presov (2025) Erasmus+ Fellowships (Ostrava 2025, Zagreb 2014, Rijeka 2012-2013) NAWA Fellowship, Polish Academy of Sciences (2022) Nordlys Fellowship, University of Eastern Finland (2018-2019) CEEPUS & additional Central-European mobility grants (2014-2018) Projects & Funding Coordinator : “Mismatch conditions in machine speaker identification” (University of Trier Research Fund, 2024-2025) Coordinator : LODinG – Linked Open Data in the Humanities (Trier Center for Digital Humanities, ongoing) Coordinator : “Patterns: Linguistic Creativity and Variation” (Trier Center for Language and Communication, 2022-2024) Member : SFB 1102 “Information Density and Linguistic Encoding” (Saarland University, DFG, 2019-2022) Member : Digital Atlas of Dialects of Bosnia and Herzegovina (2017-2018) Member : CLARIN-PL & European Roadmap for Research Infrastructures (2014-2017) Labs & Teams He conducts research within the Phonetics Team at the University of Trier , collaborates closely with the Trier Center for Digital Humanities , and maintains affiliations with the Phonetics Group at Saarland University and the WSB Merito University in Wrocław.
Felicitas Kleber is a Professor of Speech Science at the Department of Language Science and Technology, Saarland University. Her research focuses on experimental phonetics and laboratory phonology, emphasizing the interplay between speech production and perception in sound change processes. Research Areas : experimental phonetics, laboratory phonology, coarticulation dynamics, prosody and intonation, diachronic sound change, German dialects. Projects : Directed DFG-funded research on vowel/consonant quantity typology in Southern German varieties (2016–2024); DAAD-funded study on prosodic structure in Hungarian and German (2015–2016). Collaborations : Key partnerships with Jonathan Harrington (phonetics), Ulrich Reubold (acoustic analysis), and interdisciplinary teams in computational linguistics and sociophonetics. She serves as Associate Editor for the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America , integrating cognitive and social dimensions into sound change models.
Prof. Dr. Bernhard Schröder holds the full professorship (W3) of German Studies/Linguistics at the University of Duisburg-Essen , where he leads research at the Institute of German Studies (Faculty of Humanities). His academic career includes a Magister in Linguistics from University of Bonn (1991), PhD in Philosophical Linguistics (1997), and Habilitation in Language and Communication Sciences (2003). Education: Magisterabschluss (1991), University of Bonn Dr. phil. (1997), University of Bonn Habilitation (2003), University of Bonn His research bridges computational linguistics with cognitive science, focusing on prosodic analysis in mathematical proof texts, autism spectrum disorder communication studies, and corpus-based linguistic resource development. He directs the Naproche Project for computational proof checking and the AEET institute for early modern text digitization. Key projects include: Mathematical proof text modeling with frame semantics Prosody perception in autism through speech synthesis Corpus portal korpora.org development German-Namibia institute partnership Media-intensive linguistics training modules (MiLCA) He collaborates across institutions like University Hospital Freiburg, TU Dresden, and University of Bonn, with leadership roles in the European Society for Philosophy and Psychology and German Society for Computational Linguistics . His work involves speech synthesis uncertainty modeling, Kant text digitization, and Frege's arithmetic analysis.
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary AnthropologyGermany
Senay Cebioglu is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. Her work focuses on cross-cultural developmental psychology, examining how cultural contexts shape child development across diverse societies. She holds a Ph.D. from Simon Fraser University, Canada. Dr. Cebioglu earned her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Simon Fraser University, Canada. Her academic background includes advanced studies in cross-cultural research methodologies, with a focus on developmental processes in sociocultural contexts. Her research interests center on understanding the impact of culture on early socio-cognitive development, particularly in infants and children. She employs mixed methods, including naturalistic and structured observations, experimental tasks, interviews, and questionnaires. Key areas of focus include the development of self-awareness—such as mirror self-recognition—and the relationship between cultural practices and well-being in indigenous communities, such as the Bantu and BaYaka groups in the Republic of Congo. Her work integrates perspectives from psychology, anthropology, and cultural evolutionary theory. Cebioglu’s publications explore cross-cultural comparisons in child development, including studies on child-directed speech, teaching strategies influenced by formal education, and phonetic variations in baby-talk across cultures. Her research consistently emphasizes the importance of cultural context in shaping developmental outcomes, with recent attention to the dynamics of cultural change and its effects on well-being. While no specific grants are detailed, her research is supported through collaborative projects, such as co-leading a multidisciplinary investigation into cultural change and well-being in Congo. No advisees are listed in the provided materials. She is part of the Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture at the Max Planck Institute, which facilitates interdisciplinary research into human development and cultural evolution.
Professor Tania Avgustinova is a Professor of Slavic and Computational Linguistics in the Department of Language Science and Technology at Saarland University. She serves as Principle Investigator for SFB 1102 - Project C4 (INCOMSLAV) and is Head of the Slavic Lab. Her academic career spans several decades with significant contributions to Slavic linguistics, computational approaches to language, and cross-linguistic studies. Her academic qualifications include: Habilitation venia legendi in General Linguistics (2003) PhD in Slavic and Computational Linguistics (1997) Diploma in Slavistics (1987) Professor Avgustinova's research focuses on the intersection of Slavic linguistics and computational methods. She specializes in microsyntax, intercomprehension among Slavic languages, language contact phenomena, and the processing of non-compositional expressions. Her work examines how speakers of one Slavic language can understand related languages without formal instruction, with particular attention to cognitive and linguistic factors. She has developed computational models to analyze linguistic distances and asymmetries between Slavic languages, contributing significantly to understanding receptive multilingualism. Her recent publications reveal a strong focus on experimental approaches to studying cross-linguistic comprehension using web-based platforms, eye-tracking, and speech processing techniques. There's a clear trend toward investigating microsyntactic units and non-compositional expressions across Slavic languages, with applications in language technology and education. Her work bridges theoretical linguistics with practical applications in natural language processing and language learning. Principle Investigator of SFB 1102 Project C4 (INCOMSLAV) Head of Slavic Lab at Saarland University Contributor to Russian National Corpus project Developer of INCOMSLAV platform for measuring linguistic distances As Principle Investigator of SFB 1102 Project C4 (INCOMSLAV), Professor Avgustinova leads research on mutual intelligibility and surprisal in Slavic intercomprehension. She has been instrumental in developing the INCOMSLAV platform for measuring linguistic distances and asymmetries in receptive multilingualism. Her leadership extends to international collaborations, including contributions to the Russian National Corpus project where she provides expertise on grammatical phenomena at the borderline between lexicon and syntax. Professor Avgustinova heads the Slavic Lab at Saarland University, which focuses on applied, experimental, and computational linguistics. The lab conducts research on Russian corpus grammar, word embedding models, sense frequencies, and microsyntax. Her work has established important connections between theoretical linguistics and practical language technology applications, particularly in the Slavic language context.
Florian Haas is a Senior Lecturer in Linguistics at the Institute for English and American Studies , Friedrich Schiller University Jena , where he has taught since 2009 across BA, MA, and teacher training programs. His research focuses on recent morphosyntactic changes in English , contrastive linguistics , typology , and usage-based construction grammar , with a notable Habilitation thesis on the history of human impersonal pronouns in English. Education : PhD in Linguistics (2008, Free University of Berlin, summa cum laude), MA in European Master's Degree in Linguistics (2002), MA in English Studies (2002). His research interests span corpus-driven analysis of language change, cross-linguistic contrasts (particularly English-German), and cognitive approaches to grammar. His publications emphasize diachronic shifts in pronouns, genre-specific linguistic patterns, and constructionist analyses of syntax. He has supervised numerous student theses on topics like political framing, bilingualism, and sociolinguistic variation in English. Academic service includes roles as Erasmus coordinator, reviewer for journals like Journal of Pragmatics , and memberships in societies such as the Association for Linguistic Typology .
Prof. Xiangbin Teng is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Previously, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Neurocognitive and Experimental Psychology lab in Frankfurt/Berlin (2021–2022), following his PhD in Cognition and Perception from New York University and M.Sc./B.Sc. degrees from Peking University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. His research focuses on neurocognitive mechanisms underlying auditory perception, particularly speech and music processing. Key areas include neural oscillations, temporal dynamics, and multiscale auditory encoding. He investigates how rhythmic patterns in language (e.g., ancient Chinese poetry) and music influence perceptual and neural processes. Publications highlight contributions to understanding theta/gamma band neural coding, EEG modulation spectra, and phase precession mechanisms. His work bridges computational models (e.g., recurrent neural networks) with empirical neuroscience findings. ERC Consolidator Grant (2025): Leading the "TRANSFORM" project exploring visual system development from infancy to adulthood. Grants & Collaborations: Extensive research on auditory cortex fMRI methods and cochlear implant simulations. Labs/Teams: Active in CUHK's cognitive neuroscience group and previously at the Max Planck Institutes. His current lab investigates sensory-motor interactions and predictive coding in perceptual systems.
Nicoline van Harskamp is a Professor of Performative Art at the Kunstakademie Münster. Her work explores language dynamics, globalization, and technology through performance, installation, and interdisciplinary collaboration. She holds degrees from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Den Haag), Chelsea College (London), and the Rijksakademie (Amsterdam). Research interests include the evolution of English as a global language, the intersection of performance art with activism, and the impact of digital technology on artistic expression. Notable projects include Yours in Solidarity (2010–2013), Englishes (2014–2016), and the ongoing Prosodia series investigating synthetic speech and AI. Her works have been exhibited globally, including at the Tate Modern, Performa 11, and the Sydney Biennale. Collaborations include projects with institutions like the Sandberg Institute and Loughborough University’s Discourse and Rhetoric Group. Prosodia (2024) merges AI-generated speech with live performance, while Englishes MOOC offers an online course on multilingual art practices. Awards and grants include support from the Creative Industries Fund and the Pauwhof Fund. Van Harskamp’s class at Kunstakademie emphasizes cross-disciplinary collaboration, with projects like Performance Room and Actors and Directors . Her work interrogates language’s role in identity, politics, and technology, blending academic rigor with artistic innovation.
Dr. Rasmus Puggaard-Rode is a Researcher at the Spoken Language Processing Group within the Institute of Phonetics and Speech Processing (IPS) at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. His work focuses on phonetics, speech processing, and linguistic analysis, with a particular emphasis on Danish dialects, articulatory phonetics, and cross-linguistic studies. He employs advanced methodologies like electromagnetic articulography and functional data analysis to investigate phonological and phonetic phenomena. Research interests include sound change dynamics, prosodic patterns in Australian languages, and the interplay between phonetic detail and phonological systems. His recent articles explore topics such as stop consonant articulation, vowel duration in indigenous languages, and the development of computational tools for speech analysis. He has contributed to projects like the DanTIN initiative, advancing the study of Danish talk-in-interaction. His publications span phonetic education, language acquisition, and the application of statistical methods to speech data. While no awards or grants are listed, his extensive body of work demonstrates significant contributions to experimental phonetics and theoretical linguistics.
