معرفی
Bickel Balthasar is a Full Professor and Chair of the Department of Comparative Linguistics at the University of Zurich since 2011. Previously, he held professorial roles at the University of Leipzig (2002–2011) and was a Senior Researcher at UC Berkeley (1998–2001). His research focuses on linguistic typology, historical linguistics, and language evolution, with extensive fieldwork on Himalayan languages like Chintang. He earned his Dr. habil. in General Linguistics from the University of Zurich in 2001, following earlier degrees (Dr. phil., lic. phil.) in the same field.
Key research interests include the interplay between language processing and grammatical evolution, linguistic diversity in Eurasia, and the documentation of endangered languages. He leads collaborative projects such as the SNSF Sinergia-funded LiMiTS (2016–2019) and has published extensively on topics like case alignment, clause linkage, and polysynthetic languages. His work bridges typology, neurobiology, and evolutionary studies, as seen in papers on the neurophysiological foundations of grammar evolution.
- Awards: Förderungsprofessur, Swiss National Science Foundation (2001)
- Editorial Roles: Studies in Language (2009–2015), Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics (2013–present), and others.
His research integrates fieldwork, experimental methods, and computational modeling, exemplified by the Chintang corpus (1.2M words) and the AUTOTYP typological database. Current projects explore the role of environmental and migratory factors in linguistic diversification, with collaborations extending to genetics and behavioral biology.
