Bernard Comrie is a Research Professor Emeritus in Linguistics at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), affiliated with the College of Letters and Science. He previously served as Director of the Department of Linguistics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig (1998–2015) and held a Distinguished Professorship at UCSB (2002–2021). His career includes teaching positions at the University of Cambridge, University of Southern California, and leadership roles in major research institutions. Comrie’s research focuses on Language universals and typology Historical linguistics Languages of the Caucasus, New Guinea, and Great Andamanese He emphasizes fieldwork-driven cross-linguistic analysis of topics like tense/aspect, transitivity, numeral systems, and prehistoric migration studies through collaborations with archaeologists and geneticists. His recent publications explore morphosyntactic variation (e.g., verb indexing in Asian languages, reflexivity in Tsez), language contact (Kanashi prehistory), and numeral system typology. Articles often bridge theoretical linguistics with empirical data from understudied languages. Notable contributions include the World Atlas of Language Structures and foundational work on Nakh-Daghestanian and Andamanese languages. He advocates for interdisciplinary approaches to reconstructing prehistoric human movements via linguistic evidence.
Jens Edlund is a Professor at KTH Royal Institute of Technology's Division of Speech, Music and Hearing. His research focuses on speech technology, dialogue systems, prosody, and evolutionary phonetics. He has contributed to foundational work on speech synthesis, conversational interaction, and multimodal corpora like the D64 corpus. Key projects include the MonAMI Reminder system and analysis of primate vocalizations to understand speech evolution. Edlund has collaborated extensively with global researchers, producing over 150 peer-reviewed works. His work integrates computational methods with linguistic and biological insights, emphasizing human-like dialogue systems and cross-species vocal analysis. Education: Ph.D. in Speech Technology (2011, KTH) Grants: Multiple EU and Swedish Research Council grants for speech technology and interdisciplinary studies Research labs include the KTH Speech, Music and Hearing Lab and collaborations with institutions like Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Current work explores evolutionary origins of speech biomechanics and AI-driven speech synthesis evaluation.
Sara Stymne is a Senior Lecturer in Computational Linguistics at the Department of Linguistics and Philology, Uppsala University, where she has been working since 2012. She initially joined as a post-doc (2012-2015), then worked as a researcher (2015-2017), and served as an assistant professor (2017-2023) before her current position as Senior Lecturer. Prior to Uppsala, she was a researcher at Linköping University's Department of Computer and Information Science. Dr. Stymne earned her PhD in Computational Linguistics from Linköping University in 2012 with the thesis 'Text Harmonization Strategies for Phrase-Based Statistical Machine Translation,' following a Licentiate degree in Computational Linguistics (2009) and a Master's degree in Cognitive Science (2006), both also from Linköping University. During her doctoral studies, she spent the autumn of 2010 and spring of 2009 at Xerox Research Centre Europe in Grenoble, France. Her primary research interests focus on cross-lingual natural language processing and digital humanities, with particular emphasis on multilingual dependency parsing. Dr. Stymne is passionate about applying computational linguistics to solve research questions in other fields, including language history, literary analysis, and political science. Her earlier work concentrated on machine translation, with specific interests in discourse-aware translation, compound processing, and error analysis. She has made significant contributions to the development of language technology tools for analyzing dialogue, narrative, and stylistic features in literature. Analysis of Dr. Stymne's recent publications reveals a strong focus on cross-lingual and cross-domain natural language processing. Her work spans multiple subfields including dependency parsing across genres and topics, discourse relation analysis in low-resource languages like Egyptian Arabic, direct speech identification in Swedish literature, and causality detection in governmental documents. A notable trend is her application of NLP techniques to digital humanities problems, particularly in analyzing literary texts and historical language change. Her research often involves creating and utilizing specialized datasets for specific linguistic phenomena across multiple languages. Dr. Stymne actively supervises graduate students, having guided numerous master's and bachelor's theses on topics ranging from speech recognition to multilingual parsing and causality detection. She leads or participates in several research projects including 'Fictional prose and language change' (funded by VR, 2021-2023) and 'Enabling climate-resilient development' (funded by Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation, 2023-2027), demonstrating her commitment to interdisciplinary research with practical applications. Her work has resulted in several notable software resources including uuPronPred for cross-lingual pronoun prediction, uuparser for dependency parsing, and Docent for document-level machine translation. Within the Computational Linguistics and Language Technology group at Uppsala University, Dr. Stymne contributes to multiple research initiatives focused on developing language technology tools for digital humanities applications. Her team works closely with literary scholars and historians to create computational methods for analyzing large corpora of literary texts, particularly focusing on Swedish literature across different historical periods. Her research bridges the gap between theoretical computational linguistics and practical applications in the humanities, creating new methodologies for quantitative analysis of literary and historical texts.
Michael J. Black is a Professor and Honorarprofessor at the University of Tübingen's Faculty of Science, Department of Computer Science, and a founding Director of the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, leading the Perceiving Systems department. He holds a B.Sc. from the University of British Columbia (1985), M.S. from Stanford (1989), and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Yale (1992). His research focuses on computer vision, 3D human modeling, motion capture, and AI-driven digital humans. Key contributions include the SMPL body model, optical flow algorithms, and datasets like Middlebury Flow and Sintel. He has received major awards such as the PAMI Distinguished Researcher Award, multiple Koenderink and Longuet-Higgins Prizes, and is a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. His commercial ventures include co-founding Body Labs (acquired by Amazon) and Meshcapade, advancing 3D human generation and interaction technologies. Recent work includes markerless motion capture systems (e.g., MAMMA, PICO), 3D hair and garment synthesis, and AI tools like ChatHuman for 3D human interaction analysis. His research bridges vision, graphics, and robotics, with applications in animation, healthcare, and robotics.
Timothy R. Tangherlini serves as the Elizabeth H. and Eugene A. Shurtleff Chair in Undergraduate Education and Professor in the Department of Scandinavian and the School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley. A distinguished folklorist and ethnographer, he has pioneered computational approaches to folklore studies, bridging traditional humanities scholarship with cutting-edge digital methods. His research expertise spans multiple interconnected domains: Digital humanities and computational folkloristics Danish and Scandinavian cultural traditions Network analysis of narrative structures Machine learning applications in cultural analysis Conspiracy theory formation and transmission Korean cultural studies and K-Pop analysis Tangherlini's work focuses on how stories circulate across social networks and how individuals use narratives to negotiate ideology within their social groups. He has been instrumental in developing the field of Culture Analytics, co-directing a three-year program at the NSF's Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics and leading the NEH's Institute for Advanced Topics in Digital Humanities on Network Analysis for the Humanities. His research combines ethnographic depth with computational sophistication, creating novel methodologies for analyzing large cultural corpora. His scholarly contributions have earned him significant recognition: Fellow of the American Folklore Society Fellow of the Royal Gustav Adolf Academy (one of Sweden's Royal Academies) Elizabeth H. and Eugene A. Shurtleff Chair in Undergraduate Education Tangherlini has secured substantial funding from prestigious organizations including the NEH, NSF, NIH, AFOSR, Mellon Foundation, Nordic Council of Ministers, and Google. His work on conspiracy theories, K-Pop choreography analysis, and historical Danish folklore has garnered media attention, demonstrating the public relevance of his research. With extensive international experience including appointments at the University of Copenhagen, University of Iceland, and Harvard University, he maintains a global scholarly perspective while contributing significantly to undergraduate education at Berkeley.
Andreas Stoehr is a renowned Austrian conductor and professor at the Music and Arts Private University of the City of Vienna, leading the conducting department and symphony orchestra since 2013. His career spans prestigious engagements including the Paris Opéra Comique, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, and St. Gallen Theatre, focusing on operatic repertoire from Monteverdi to modernism. He is celebrated for reviving neglected works like Meyerbeer’s Emma di Resburgo and Gluck’s Ezio , emphasizing historical performance practices. His research explores stylistic transitions in music history, blending baroque precision with modern innovation. Education: Trained at Vienna's former Conservatory (now University of Music and Performing Arts), studying piano under Alfred Kremela, conducting with Gennadij Rozhdestvenskij, and musicology at the University of Vienna. Key mentors included David Lutz (accompaniment) and Reinhard Schwarz (conducting). Research Interests: Explores interdisciplinary connections between diverse musical eras, such as Bach’s influence on Schoenberg, and advocates for vocal-orchestral balance in historical repertoires. Projects include CD recordings of Amanda Maier-Röntgen and Andrea Tarrodi’s works, nominated for Swedish Grammis. Awards: Grammy nomination (2016) for Amanda Maier-Röntgen’s Violin Concerto recording. Recognized for innovative stagings of operas like Berg’s Wozzeck and Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande . Teaching & Leadership: As professor and symphony orchestra director, Stoehr mentors young conductors. Notable collaborations include the Langenlois Castle Festival (2012–2019) and interdisciplinary projects like Heart and Mouth, and Deed and Life blending Bach with sociological texts. His teaching emphasizes 21st-century conductorship as collaborative architecture, prioritizing emotional engagement over technical authoritarianism. Labs/Ensembles: Leads the MUK Symphony Orchestra, collaborating with ensembles like the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège. His work bridges academic research with performance practice through projects like the Styriarte Festival’s Schubert revival.
Magnus Dahlstedt is Professor of Social Work at Linköping University's Department of Culture and Society (IKOS) since 2019, previously holding the same position at ISV (Institution for Social and Welfare Studies) from 2015-2019. He has been responsible for the research environment and doctoral education in Social Work at Linköping University from 2016 to 2023. His academic journey began with a PhD in Ethnicity from Linköping University in 2005, followed by becoming a docent (associate professor) in 2009 and a biträdande professor (associate professor) in 2014 before achieving full professorship in 2015. Dahlstedt's research centers on citizenship formation in contemporary society shaped by welfare policy transformations and international migration. His work examines how citizenship is concretely formed in segregated urban environments, focusing particularly on the gap between formal rights and substantive living conditions. He investigates social pedagogical efforts across public policy, education, and the non-profit sector, with special attention to vulnerable groups including young people with foreign backgrounds in urban peripheries. His methodological approach is interdisciplinary, grounded in critical power analysis, discourse analysis, and ideological critique, often involving cross-disciplinary research collaborations. His recent publications reveal consistent thematic focus on migration, social inclusion, and urban segregation, with particular emphasis on how sports can serve as tools for social purposes in marginalized communities. The research shows increasing attention to longitudinal studies of migrants' trajectories and the role of different educational contexts (high school, folk high schools, study associations) in integration processes. Dahlstedt's work demonstrates strong policy relevance, with findings frequently presented in government agency reports and informing public debate on segregation and inclusion. Researcher at Center for Community Strategies Research (2018-2021) Member of Mimerrådet, National Program for Folk Education Research (since 2014) Department Head at Remeso, Linköping University (2012-2015) Dahlstedt actively contributes to public discourse through media appearances, public lectures, and alternative writing projects including the anthology 'Brandtal' (2023) and 'Hårdare kan ingen vara' (2023), while preparing 'En professors dagbok' for publication in fall 2024. His research is funded by multiple agencies including Vetenskapsrådet, Norrköping Research and Development Fund, and the Swedish Crime Prevention Council.
Mattias Heldner is Professor of Phonetics and Head of Department at the Department of Linguistics, Stockholm University. He also serves as Director of the Phonetics Laboratory where he has developed advanced recording facilities for breathing movements and voice quality dynamics in conversation. Dr. Heldner received his PhD in Phonetics from Umeå University in 2002, completed a postdoc at TeliaSonera Sweden in 2005, became Docent in Speech Communication at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in 2007, and was appointed Professor in Phonetics at Stockholm University in 2011. His research focuses on communicative behavior relevant for turn-taking in conversation and signaling of prosodic functions such as prominence and boundaries. His work spans multiple dimensions of speech communication, including: Respiratory patterns and their role in conversation flow Voice quality dynamics as turn-taking cues Prosodic functions in spontaneous speech Physiological constraints in verbal communication Acoustic properties of child speech development Neural correlates of lexical stress Dr. Heldner's recent publications demonstrate how respiratory signals provide crucial information for predicting speech activity and managing turn-taking. His research combines physiological measurements with acoustic analysis to uncover hidden aspects of conversational organization, particularly the relationship between breathing patterns and speech timing. As an educator, Dr. Heldner has taught phonetics courses for Speech and Language Pathology students at Karolinska Institutet, University of Gothenburg, and Umeå University. He currently supervises one PhD student and has successfully supervised two PhD theses to completion. Dr. Heldner has held several Swedish research grants and served as one of the Technical Program Chairs for Interspeech 2017 in Stockholm. His Phonetics Laboratory has developed innovative systems like RespTrack for measuring respiratory movements during speech with high experimental control.
Pontus Johnson is a Professor at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. He leads the Center for Cyber Defense and Information Security (collaborating with Swedish Armed Forces, FRA, MSB, FOI, FHS) and serves as vice director of Cybercampus Sweden since 2024. His research focuses on cybersecurity , enterprise architecture analysis , and probabilistic threat modeling , particularly through his development of the Meta Attack Language (MAL) for simulating cyber attacks on networked systems. Education: MSc in Computer Science, Lund Institute of Technology (1997) PhD in Computer Science, KTH (2002) Docent title, KTH (2007) Leadership Roles: Director, Center for Cyber Defense and Information Security (2013–present) Vice Director, Cybercampus Sweden (2024–present) Board Member, Swedish Research Council (2025–present) Deputy Chair, Swedish Royal Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA) Board (2024–present) His work spans cybersecurity research , attack simulation methodologies , and enterprise architecture frameworks . He has developed tools like securiCAD (acquired by Google) and pwnPr3d for probabilistic threat modeling. His 15 most recent publications highlight advancements in graph-based attack simulations , automated security assessments , and AI applications in cyber defense . Scientific recognition includes: Listed among Tech Awards Sweden's 50 Most Influential People in Swedish Tech (2022, 2023) Discovery of vulnerability in the Universal Turing Machine (2021) He supervises 16 PhD students and alumni (2005–2024), including Simon Gökstorp , Jakob Nyberg , and Sotirios Katsikeas . His academic service includes over 50 program committee roles and leadership positions in international conferences. He contributes to both academic and public domains through media appearances (SVT, Aftonbladet), courses in ethical hacking , and industry collaboration via his role at Google (20% of his time). His research group Software Systems Architecture and Security (SSAS) focuses on predictive security frameworks and system-of-systems analysis.
Dr. Catrin Lundström is an Assistant Professor of Ethnicity and Migration at the Department of Migration, Ethnicity and Society (REMESO) within the Department of Culture and Society (IKOS) at Linköping University's Faculty of Philosophy. Her research focuses on the intersection of migration, whiteness, and gender, examining how Swedish women experience transnational migration and return migration processes. Dr. Lundström received her PhD in Sociology from Uppsala University in 2007 and became an Associate Professor (Docent) in Sociology there in 2011. Her academic journey includes teaching and research positions at multiple Swedish institutions including Uppsala University, Stockholm University, Mälardalen University, Södertörn University, Umeå University, and Linköping University. She has also been a visiting researcher at the University of Arizona and the University of California. Dr. Lundström's research centers on whiteness as both a place-bound and transnational construction. She challenges conventional migration studies by focusing on privileged Swedish women migrants, developing the concept of 'white capital' to understand how whiteness functions as transferable cultural capital across national borders. Her work examines how racial privilege, gender, and class intersect in migration experiences, particularly among women who migrate for lifestyle, companionship, or professional reasons. Her recent publications demonstrate an expanding focus on the relationship between race, whiteness, and educational systems in Sweden, as well as critical examinations of contemporary political debates through the lens of critical race theory. Lundström's work increasingly addresses how colorblind discourse operates in Swedish society while simultaneously exploring the politics of national identity in a globalized world. Dr. Lundström has led significant research projects including: 'White Migrations: Gender, Whiteness and Privilege in Transnational Migration' (2014) 'Tre faser av hegemonisk vithet' (Three Phases of Hegemonic Whiteness) with Tobias Hübinette 'Att återintegrera svenskheten' (Reintegrating Swedishness) on returning Swedish migrant women, funded by the Swedish Research Council Her research has been supported by organizations including the Sweden-America Foundation and the Swedish Research Council. Dr. Lundström is actively involved in several academic networks: IMISCOE Standing Committee on Gender, Migration and Transnational Lives White Spaces Network at Leeds University Lifestyle Migration Hub, an international network of researchers studying lifestyle migration She regularly lectures within and outside academia, both in Sweden and internationally, and has received significant media attention for her research on school segregation, colorblind language, and gender equality in migration contexts.
Hedvig Kjellström is a Professor at the Division of Robotics, Perception and Learning within the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. She holds significant affiliations with the Swedish e-Science Research Centre and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Germany. Her work spans multiple interdisciplinary domains and she serves as Editor-in-Chief for CVIU and was Program Chair for CVPR 2025. Her research centers on Computer Vision as a sub-field of AI, with three interconnected themes: Computational Aesthetics (exploring aesthetic aspects of human communicative behavior), Communicative Behavior (developing models of how humans and animals perceive and produce non-verbal communication), and Embodied Artificial Intelligence (creating methodologies for robots and autonomous agents to perceive the world through sensors, primarily vision). Her work has significant applications in medical diagnostics, animal welfare, human-robot interaction, and creative arts. Analysis of her recent publications reveals a strong trend toward multimodal AI systems that integrate vision, language, and action understanding. Her research increasingly focuses on animal-centered applications, particularly equine pain detection and behavior analysis, while maintaining strong foundations in human communication modeling, gesture recognition, and 3D reconstruction techniques. The interdisciplinary nature of her work bridges computer science with veterinary medicine, neuroscience, and performing arts. Hedvig Kjellström actively supervises numerous PhD and Master's students across various projects and maintains extensive collaborations with institutions including Karolinska Institutet, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, and international partners. Her research is supported by major funding bodies including WASP, VR, and SeRC. She leads or participates in several notable projects including OrchestrAI (communication between conductor and orchestra), ANITA (Animal Translator), MARTHA (3D horse motion analysis), and STING (synthesis and analysis with transducers and invertible neural generators). Her work with ACAI (Animal Centered Artificial Intelligence), which she co-founded and directs, demonstrates her commitment to applying AI for animal welfare.
Elias Jarlebring is a Professor in Numerical Linear Algebra at the Department of Mathematics, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. He has held the position of Full Professor since 2021, following his tenure as Associate Professor (2013-2021) and Dahlquist Research Fellow (2011-2013). His research focuses on numerical analysis, numerical linear algebra, matrix computations, and scientific computing. Jarlebring develops linear algebra algorithms to solve problems from various fields including systems and control, acoustics, electromagnetics, data science, quantum mechanics, and quantum chemistry. He is a core developer of NEP-PACK, a scientific computing software package for nonlinear eigenproblems. His recent publications demonstrate significant contributions to computational methods for nonlinear eigenvalue problems, matrix functions, and parameterized linear systems. The research shows a clear trajectory toward increasingly complex applications in quantum computing, data science, and wave propagation problems. Project grant, Swedish research council (2019) Ruth och Nils-Erik Stenbäcks foundation, junior grant (2019) Göran Gustafsson Prize for junior researchers (2014) Project grant for junior researchers, Swedish research council (2014-2018) Professor Jarlebring has supervised numerous PhD students including Vilhelm Peterson Lithell, Gustaf Lorentzon, Siobhán Correnty, Parikshit Upadhyaya, Emil Ringh, Antti Koskela, and Giampaolo Mele. He has received multiple research grants from the Swedish Research Council and serves as editor for BIT Numerical Mathematics, Linear and Multilinear Algebra, NACO Numerical Algebra Control and Optimization, and CALCOLO. He is actively involved in the numerical linear algebra community as a member of ILAS (International Linear Algebra Society), GAMM Activity Group on Numerical Linear Algebra, and the Nordic Numerical Linear Algebra Association. He also contributes to open source projects, particularly in the Julia programming language ecosystem.
Niklas Salmose is a Professor at the Department of Languages , Linnaeus University , Sweden. His research integrates Nostalgia , Intermediality , and Ecocriticism , focusing on Environmental Humanities and Modernist Literature . PhD in English from the University of Edinburgh (2012) Visiting Professor at UCLA (Autumn 2018) Vice-Chair of Department of Languages (Linnaeus University) Co-coordinator of the graduate school MIDWorld (Swedish Research Council-funded) His recent work explores the intersection of Climate Crisis and Intermediality through monographs like Mediations of Nostalgia: Aesthetics, Intermediality, Ecology (Edinburgh UP, 2024). He co-edits special issues on Ecological Emergencies and Blue-Eco Stories with journals Humanities and Textus . Salmose supervises four PhD projects on topics ranging from Intermedial Ecocriticism to Western Imperialism and Nostalgic Aesthetics . He is a member of the Linnaeus University Centre for Intermedial and Multimodal Studies and leads projects like Future Food Cultures in the Anthropocene and IMS Green . His publications span Climate Crisis , Anthropocene , Nordic Noir , and Sensorial Aesthetics , with notable works in The Palgrave Handbook of Intermediality , The Routledge Handbook of Nostalgia , and Contemporary Ecocritical Methods . Salmose is actively involved in editorial boards for Humanities and Text Matters , and serves on the executive board of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society .
Martin Volk is a Full Professor of Computational Linguistics at the University of Zurich, with a dual affiliation to the Department of Informatics since 2019. He holds a PhD from the University of Koblenz and has held academic positions at institutions including Stockholm University (part-time from 2008-2011), Zurich University of Applied Sciences, and the University of Georgia. His research focuses on grammar engineering, machine translation evaluation, multilingual text analysis, and cross-language information retrieval. Education : Born in Cochem, Germany Studied Computer Science and Computational Linguistics at EWH University, Koblenz Master's in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Georgia (Fulbright Scholar) PhD in Computational Linguistics from the University of Koblenz Research Interests : His work emphasizes data-driven NLP methods, including corpus-based approaches, parsing technologies, and the application of machine learning to historical and multilingual texts. Key focuses include: Machine translation systems and evaluation frameworks Grammar testing environments (e.g., GTU) OCR and digitization of historical documents (e.g., Gothic script) Development of parallel corpora for linguistic research Projects : SMULTRON: Multilingual parallel treebank project Bullinger Digital: Historical document digitization initiative Text+Berg: Digital Humanities project for alpine textual heritage EU-funded MuchMore (cross-language medical IR) Grants & Collaborations : Recipient of grants from the Swiss National Science Foundation, EU projects, and industry partnerships (e.g., Siemens, Xerox). His work integrates academic and industrial perspectives in NLP tool development. Labs & Teams : Leads research teams in the Institute of Computational Linguistics at UZH, focusing on projects like the Zurich Parallel Corpus Collection and MODERN (modeling discourse for MT).
Professor Janet Stewart is Executive Dean of Arts and Humanities and Professor of Visual Culture and German at Durham University. She holds a Ph.D in German and Sociology from the University of Glasgow and previously held positions at the University of Aberdeen. As founding Director of the Centre for Visual Arts and Culture, she leads interdisciplinary research initiatives. Her research focuses on visual culture, German literature, cultural sociology, and urban history, with current work exploring energy humanities and petroleum culture. She is author of 'Fashioning Vienna: Adolf Loos’s Cultural Criticism' (2000) and 'Public Speaking in the City' (2009), and co-editor of the 'Routledge Handbook of Energy Humanities'. Professor Stewart's publications demonstrate consistent focus on cultural representations of modernity, with recent work examining energy systems through sociological frameworks. Her articles bridge visual culture, urban studies, and energy humanities methodologies. Awards & Honors: Junior Fellowship, International Research Centre for Cultural Sciences Vienna (1995) Leverhulme Trust Study Abroad Studentship (1997-1998) Editor of German Life and Letters Advisory Board Member: Austrian Studies Yearbook, Journal of Austrian Studies AHRC Peer Review College member She supervises graduate students including Lenka Schmalisch and leads the Climate Imaginaries research project funded by the Swedish Research Council. As curator of the 'OilScapes' exhibition and co-organizer of international Petrocultures conferences, she builds interdisciplinary collaborations.
