Heather Weston

Heather Weston is a doctoral researcher at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, affiliated with the DFG/ANR project SALAMMBO (Spoken Language in Motions: Learning and Adaptation of Speech Communication in the Context of Body Motions) under the Laboratory Phonology research area. Her work focuses on the interaction between physical movement and speech production, analyzing phenomena such as motion rate, speech tempo, glottal parameters, and intra-speaker variability during physical activity.

Research Interests

• Effects of physical load on phonatory processes and voice stability
• Biomechanical modeling of speech-movement coordination
• Acoustic analysis of fundamental frequency (f0) and harmonics-to-noise ratio
• Physiological responses during light/moderate physical exertion

Scientific Awards

• 2019: Fellowship in the Freies Wissen (Free Knowledge) program.

Teaching

• 2022: Phonetics courses (SS 2022, WS 2021/22) at the University of Cambridge
• 2019: Embodiment in Speech course at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (WS 2019/20)

Conference Participation

Heather presented her research at workshops such as the Speech Motor Control 2022 (virtual), European Workshop on Speech Production (2022), and the 58th IDS Workshop (2022). She collaborated with researchers like Dr. Susanne Fuchs, Dr. Wim Pouw, and Dr. Amelie Rochet-Capellan.