Paul Boersma is a Professor of Phonetic Sciences at the University of Amsterdam within the Faculty of Humanities. His research explores how phonetic, phonological, and morphological phenomena emerge through computational modeling using artificial neural networks and Optimality Theory, with a focus on multi-level constraint interactions and distributional learning. University of Amsterdam Faculty of Humanities Phonetic Sciences Key research areas include: Computational Modeling : Simulations of phonological category emergence from phonetic data Optimality Theory : Gradual Learning Algorithm applications BiPhon Framework : Parallel bidirectional phonology/phonetics models Statistical Learning : Cross-situational and distributional learning mechanisms Recent publications emphasize: 2025: Inclusive speech recognition systems using Whisper model 2025: F0 ratio analysis for creaky voice diagnostics 2024: Prosodic clitics in child speech and checked tones in Shanghai Chinese 2023: Distributional learning in developmental language disorder contexts 2022: Substance-free phonological features and ghost segment phenomena He has also contributed extensively to the Praat software for phonetic analysis, with continuous updates since 1993.
Erik W. Willis is an Associate Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Indiana University Bloomington, where he also serves as Director of Graduate Studies and Director of the Hispanic Linguistics Program. His work focuses on Spanish phonetics, phonology, and dialectal variation, particularly in Caribbean and Mexican Spanish varieties. He employs acoustic analysis and laboratory methods to study rhotic contrasts, intonational patterns, and sociolinguistic phenomena. Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2003) M.A., Brigham Young University (1997) B.A., Brigham Young University (1994) His research spans multiple subfields including: Acoustic characterization of Spanish rhotics Intonational system analysis using Sp_ToBI Second language phonology acquisition Web-based language assessment tools Vowel system variations in Spanish dialects Contextual phonetic realizations in Caribbean Spanish Recent publications demonstrate systematic variation in coda liquids, tap-trill contrasts, and intonational patterns across Dominican, Puerto Rican, and Mexican Spanish. His work combines empirical acoustic analysis with sociolinguistic frameworks to document both phonetic realizations and their pragmatic functions in spoken language.
Prof. Robert Fuchs holds the Frommann Professorship of Applied English Linguistics at the University of Bonn, leading the Chair of Bonn Applied English Linguistics (BAEL) within the Department of English, American and Celtic Studies. His research focuses on World Englishes, corpus linguistics, sociolinguistics, and the impact of artificial intelligence on linguistic analysis. He actively supervises PhD students in topics aligned with his research group's interests, emphasizing empirical work and data science. Recent research explores language change in varieties like Hong Kong English, Trinidadian prosody, and intensifier usage across cultures. Fuchs frequently presents at international conferences, including ISLE, ICAME, and Sociolinguistics Symposium, and publishes extensively in journals like World Englishes and Language and Speech . His teaching includes advanced courses on corpus linguistics and language in culture, with a focus on climate change discourse analysis. He maintains an active academic presence through ResearchGate, Academia.edu, and LinkedIn. Research Interests: Fuchs investigates sociolinguistic variation, AI applications in linguistics, and the structural features of postcolonial Englishes. His work addresses topics such as vowel mergers in Hong Kong English, lexical stress perception in Indian English, and the role of gender in language use. He also explores diachronic changes in aspects like stative progressives and the perfect-past alternation across Asian Englishes. Advising & Grants: Fuchs oversees PhD student recruitment through research associate positions and self-funded scholarships, prioritizing applicants with strong empirical and analytical skills. His funded projects include studies on pandemic discourse (DisCOVIndUK) and linguistic trends in Caribbean English. His lab, BAEL, collaborates internationally, with ongoing work on Trinidadian prosody and Northeast Indian linguistic ecology. Labs/Teams: The Bonn Applied English Linguistics (BAEL) group, part of the University of Bonn's IAAK institute, focuses on cutting-edge research in global Englishes and computational linguistics, hosting international workshops and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration.
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.
Dr. Gábor Pintér holds dual academic appointments as Assistant Professor at Károli Gáspár Reformed University's Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (Department of Japanology) and as Associate Professor at Kobe University's School of Languages and Communication. Born in Hungary in 1977, he earned his MA (2005) and PhD (2008) in Linguistics from Kobe University, Japan, with a dissertation on asymmetrical segment distributions in Japanese. His research focuses on three interconnected domains: phonological theory (especially Japanese phonology), experimental phonetics, and applications of automatic speech recognition in language education. Specific interests include vowel devoicing patterns, prosodic perception in L2 learners, phonotactic constraints, and diachronic sound changes in Japanese. Pintér actively contributes to international research collaborations, including the JSPS-funded project 'Stochastic & theoretical phonological research' and serves as chair of the Phonology Association in Kansai (PAIK). His 15 most recent publications demonstrate methodological diversity, combining theoretical linguistics with computational approaches and experimental studies, primarily focused on Japanese phonetics and speech technology applications. Professional memberships include board positions in The Phonological Society of Japan and memberships in the International Speech Communication Association and Association for Laboratory Phonology.
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.
Rachel Nordlinger is a Professor of Linguistics and Director of the Research Unit for Indigenous Language at the University of Melbourne's School of Languages and Linguistics. Her research focuses on documenting and describing Australian Indigenous languages, with a particular emphasis on syntactic and morphological theory. She has conducted extensive fieldwork with communities speaking Bilinarra, Wambaya, Gudanji, Murrinhpatha, and Marri Ngarr, contributing to language preservation efforts. She holds a PhD from Stanford University and has authored influential works including A Grammar of Wambaya and co-edited volumes like The Languages and Linguistics of Australia . Nordlinger is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities (2017) and leads major grants like the ARC Centre of Excellence for Dynamics of Language (2014-2026). Her work integrates linguistic theory with community-driven language revitalization projects, emphasizing the interconnectedness of language and cultural knowledge. Key research grants include projects on polysynthetic language processing (2021-2025), Indigenous language documentation, and cross-linguistic syntactic analysis. Nordlinger collaborates with institutions such as PARADISEC and the Kanamkek-Yile Ngala Museum to preserve endangered language materials. Her interdisciplinary approach bridges formal linguistic analysis with applied community linguistics.
Susanne Schötz is an Associate Professor of Phonetics at Lund University's Centre for Languages and Literature and a Researcher at the Lund University Humanities Lab. She is also the project manager for Cat-human communication research and a member of the LU Profile Area: Natural and Artificial Cognition. Her research focuses on phonetic variation in three main areas: dialectal variation in Swedish and other languages, paralinguistic variation related to age, emotion, attitude and health condition, and phonetic variation in human-animal communication, particularly cat-human communication. She has led several research projects including Melody in human–cat communication (Meowsic), Cat–Human Communication, and studies on Estonian Swedish and Swedish vowel articulation using articulography. Dr. Schötz teaches courses at the speech and language pathology and audiology programs at Lund University. Her work with cats has gained significant attention, including winning the Ig Nobel Prize in Biology in 2021 for research on cat-human communication. Her research output demonstrates strong trends in animal communication, particularly focusing on the acoustic properties of cat vocalizations and how humans perceive and interpret these sounds. She combines traditional phonetic analysis with innovative approaches to study cross-species communication, making significant contributions to both linguistics and animal behavior studies. Scientific Awards: The Ig Nobel Prize in Biology (2021) Årets Mäster (Master of the Year) (2020) Vetenskapssocieteten Lunds universitet (2016) Vetenskapssocieteten i Lund: Stipendium för betydande insats inom humanistisk forskning (2007) Dr. Schötz has supervised research projects and students in phonetics and human-animal communication. Her work has been supported by various research funds including MAW, SKK och Agrias forskningsfond, and the Pufendorf IAS. She is in charge of the articulographs in the Humanities Lab, which are essential for her research on speech production and articulation. She is actively involved in the Lund University Humanities Lab, contributing to its mission of interdisciplinary research in the humanities through her expertise in phonetics and communication studies.
Holly J. Nibert is an Associate Professor of Hispanic Linguistics and Director of the Spanish Language Program in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at The Ohio State University. Her research focuses on second language acquisition (SLA) of Spanish phonology and phonetics within the revised Speech Learning Model (SLM-r). She also emphasizes principles of teaching Spanish as a second language, instructor training, and language program administration. Education: Ph.D. in Spanish Linguistics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2000) M.A. in Spanish Linguistics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1991) B.A. in Spanish, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1989) Research interests span Spanish phonetics/phonology SLA, pedagogical techniques, and leadership in language program administration. Her recent work examines applying leadership studies to program direction. She co-authored two Spanish textbooks: ¡Arriba! and Día a día . Key awards include the 2013 WMU Distinguished Teaching Award and multiple teaching accolades as a graduate TA. Her work bridges theoretical SLA research with practical classroom applications, including curriculum design and international teaching assistant training. Her contributions to the field include advancing techniques for SLA of segmental and prosodic features, as well as leadership strategies for language programs. She previously directed Western Michigan University's First-Year Spanish Program for 15 years before joining OSU in 2014.
Jill Thorson serves as Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders within the College of Health and Human Services. Recognized with the 2024 Excellence in Teaching Award, she demonstrates exceptional commitment to student-centered pedagogy across undergraduate and graduate curricula, particularly in courses like Language Acquisition and Clinical Phonetics where she transforms complex concepts into accessible learning experiences through active strategies and technological integration. Her research investigates prosodic mechanisms in child language development, with emphasis on naturalistic caregiver-child interactions, autism spectrum communication patterns, and clinical assessment methodologies. She examines how pitch contours, intonation, and rhythmic patterns facilitate language acquisition in diverse populations, employing acoustic analysis of museum visits, classroom settings, and spontaneous speech to uncover links between prosody and cognitive processing. Recent publications (2020-2025) reveal consistent focus on prosodic assessment innovations, cross-linguistic autism studies, and the role of intonation in attentional guidance. Key trends include statistical learning networks, referent processing through pitch variation, and clinical applications for minimally verbal children, demonstrating her commitment to bridging theoretical linguistics with therapeutic practice. Scientific Awards: Excellence in Teaching Award, College of Health and Human Services (2024) Dr. Thorson maintains an active research laboratory mentoring undergraduate and graduate students in hands-on projects, with advisees consistently crediting her one-on-one consultations and collaborative environment for their professional development as clinicians. While specific grant details aren't provided, her extensive publication record indicates sustained research funding supporting naturalistic methodology development. Her laboratory specializes in acoustic analysis of real-world communication, conducting studies in preschool classrooms and museum settings to document prosodic patterns in typically developing children and those with autism spectrum disorders, with current work advancing assessment tools for clinical speech pathology applications.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ali Şükrü Özbay currently serves as an Associate Professor at Karadeniz Technical University's Faculty of Arts, Department of English Language and Literature. He earned his PhD and MA in Applied Linguistics from Karadeniz Technical University and holds a BA in English Language and Literature from Ankara University. Education : PhD (2015) and MA (2004) from Karadeniz Technical University; BA (1996) from Ankara University Dr. Özbay's research focuses on Corpus Linguistics , Learner Corpora , Academic Writing , Translation Studies , and Language Pedagogy . His work investigates lexical bundles, support verb constructions, and pragmatic markers through computational corpus analysis. Recent publications analyze four-word recurrent expressions in educational technology contexts, collocational priming in Turkish EFL learners' mental lexicon, and semantic prosody of intensifiers in academic corpora. He supervises theses on data-driven learning applications and corpus-based teaching materials. Dr. Özbay has held managerial roles including Deputy Head of Department (2019–present) and Assistant Coordinator for Erasmus+ programs (2017–2021). He actively participates in international conferences and has published in journals like Turkish Studies , Australian Journal of Applied Linguistics , and Hacettepe Eğitim Dergisi .
Arto Anttila is an Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics at Stanford University and holds an Adjunct Professor (dosentti) position in General Linguistics at the University of Helsinki. His research spans multiple linguistic subfields with particular focus on the interfaces between phonology, syntax, and prosody. Dr. Anttila's research interests include phonology, morphology, syntax, metrics, and language variation. His work often explores how phonological constraints interact with syntactic structures and how variation manifests across different linguistic domains. He has made significant contributions to Optimality Theory, MaxEnt grammar, and probabilistic approaches to phonology. His recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on metrical patterns, stress systems, syllable structure, and the relationship between prosody and syntax. Anttila frequently collaborates with researchers like Giorgio Magri, Adams Bodomo, and Ryan Heuser, examining phenomena across diverse languages including English, Finnish, and Dagaare (an African language). Anttila has developed several computational tools for linguistic research, including CoGeTo (Convex Geometry Tools for constraint-based phonology), MetricalTree (for English phrasal stress prediction), Prosodic (for automatic metrical scansion), T-Order Generator, and OTOrder. These tools reflect his interest in the mathematical and computational aspects of linguistic theory.
Professor Julia Schlüter is a distinguished academic in the Chair of English Linguistics within the Humanities Faculty at the University of Bamberg, Germany. She has served as Senior Lecturer at the Chair of English Linguistics and Language History under Prof. Manfred Krug since June 2008, holding the title of Professor following her habilitation in 2008. Her institutional profile demonstrates deep commitment to both research and teaching innovation, particularly through her leadership of the KorPLUS project and development of open educational resources for corpus linguistics. Her research interests span corpus linguistics for English language learners, empirical methods for studying language variation and change, and the application of corpus methods to teaching. She specializes in examining grammatical, phonological, and lexical differences between British and American English across historical periods from Middle English to present-day usage. Her work investigates phonological variation (particularly phonotactically controlled alternations), morphological change, and syntactic variation through corpus analysis, with special attention to functional grammar and grammaticalization theory. Professor Schlüter's recent publications (2022-2025) reveal a strategic evolution in her research focus, with increasing emphasis on the intersection of corpus linguistics and digital education. While maintaining her foundational work in historical English linguistics, she has developed significant expertise in applying corpus methods to language teacher education and evaluating AI writing tools. Her work demonstrates consistent methodological innovation, moving from traditional corpus analysis to blended learning approaches and digital educational resource development. Her scientific recognition includes: Winner of the 2025 Teaching Innovation Prize from the International Society for the Linguistics of English for the KorPLUS project University of Bamberg Prize for outstanding habilitation (2009) Lise Meitner Programme post-doctoral scholarship (2005-2006) Rectorate Prize from University of Paderborn for outstanding Ph.D. thesis (2005) Multiple DAAD scholarships for international study Professor Schlüter actively supervises doctoral research, currently guiding three Ph.D. candidates (Katharina Deckert, Aklima Nahar, and Nikolai Beland) while having successfully completed supervision for several others. She leads the KorPLUS project (2021-2025), funded by the Stiftung Innovation in der Hochschullehre, which develops open educational resources for corpus linguistics. Her research has been consistently supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and other funding bodies throughout her career. She heads the KorPLUS team (with Carina Großmann and Katharina Deckert) which develops the interactive Open Educational Resource platform for corpus linguistics. Her YouTube channel offers video tutorials on corpus basics, and she has created the Video Podcast Series "How to Update your Grammar" for English teachers. She regularly organizes in-service teacher trainings and collaborates with the Virtual Linguistics Campus at RWTH Aachen University to deliver her educational materials globally.
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.
Jalal Al-Tamimi is an Associate Professor (Maître de conférences) in experimental phonetics and phonology at Université Paris Cité, affiliated with the Laboratoire de Linguistique Formelle (LLF). He holds an HDR (Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches) in Phonetics and Phonology and has extensive experience in teaching and research across institutions including Newcastle University, UK. His research focuses on the interface between phonetics and phonology, particularly the role of acoustic and articulatory correlates in speech production, perception, and acquisition. He specializes in Arabic dialects, using advanced quantitative methods like generalized additive mixed models and machine learning techniques. Al-Tamimi’s academic journey includes a PhD from Lyon 2 University (2007) and postdoctoral roles in the UK before joining Paris. He currently directs the Master in Language Sciences and co-leads research strands on phonetic complexity and language variation. His administrative roles include membership in the AFCP and coordination of experimental linguistics at LLF. Research interests span laboratory phonology, articulatory-acoustic mapping, and the application of automated methods in clinical diagnosis. His work explores epilarynx dynamics in Arabic gutturals and forced-alignment systems for dialectal Arabic. Awards include the Peter Ladefoged Prize (2018) and Leverhulme Fellowships. He supervises numerous PhD and MA students across computational linguistics and phonetics. Publications highlight contributions to vowel dynamics, speech processing in Alzheimer’s, and cross-linguistic phonological studies. His lab collaborations involve the MAUS team and Sorbonne’s SCAI, focusing on speech technology and pathological speech analysis.
