Janet Pierrehumbert

Janet Pierrehumbert is a Professor of Language Modelling at the Oxford e-Research Centre (part of the Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford). She holds a courtesy appointment in the Faculty of Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics and is an Associate Member of the Oxford-Man Institute of Quantitative Finance. Previously, she served as a Professor at Northwestern University (1993–2015), where she held leadership roles including department chair and director of graduate studies. Her interdisciplinary research spans experimental and computational linguistics, focusing on phonology, morphology, and computational linguistics. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Cognitive Science Society, and the Linguistic Society of America, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences (USA).

Education: BA in Linguistics and Mathematics (Harvard University); PhD in Linguistics (MIT).

Research Interests: Pierrehumbert’s work integrates computational methods with linguistic theory to explore sound change, morphological processing, and language modeling. Her studies often address how statistical patterns in speech and lexicons influence phonological cognition. Recent projects include improving NLP models (e.g., BERT) through linguistic insights and developing benchmarks for hate-speech detection algorithms.

Publications: Her work spans decades, with notable contributions to computational linguistics, phonology, and sociolinguistics. Recent articles highlight advancements in NLP ethics, morphological theory, and sound change mechanisms. Earlier foundational studies include pioneering work on Japanese tone structure and intonational pragmatics.

Awards & Memberships: Her honors include the ISCA Medal for Scientific Achievement (2020) and Guggenheim Fellowship (1996). She co-founded the Association for Laboratory Phonology and is active in interdisciplinary initiatives like the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems.

Labs & Teams: Her research group at Oxford focuses on robust language technology and theoretical linguistics. She collaborates across disciplines, bridging computational and experimental approaches to language science.