Team

Martijn Wieling

Principal Investigator
Martijn is Professor by special appointment of Low Saxon / Groningen Language and Culture at the Center for Groningen Language and Culture and an Associate Professor (UHD1) at the University of Groningen.

Martijn Wieling

Martijn Wieling is Professor by special appointment of Low Saxon / Groningen Language and Culture at the Center for Groningen Language and Culture and an Associate Professor (UHD1) at the University of Groningen. His research focuses on investigating language variation and change quantitatively, with a specific focus on the Low Saxon language. He uses both large digital corpora of text and speech, as well as experimental approaches to assess differences in the movement of the tongue and lips during speech. More information about the research conducted in his group can be found on the website of the Speech Lab Groningen.

Defne Abur

Affiliate member
Defne directs the Speech Biosignal Processing lab at the University of Groningen. She is an Assistant Professor of Speech & Speech Technology in the Computational Linguistics department and she is affiliated with the Research School for Behavioral and Cognitive Neurosciences.

Defne Abur

Defne Abur directs the Speech Biosignal Processing lab at the University of Groningen. She is an Assistant Professor of Speech & Speech Technology in the Computational Linguistics department and she is affiliated with the Research School for Behavioral and Cognitive Neurosciences. She received a B.S. in Engineering Science from Smith College, with a concentration in Biomathematics, where she performed research in hearing sciences and middle ear acoustics. She completed her doctoral work at Boston University in the Stepp Lab and focused on auditory contributions to speech motor control in voice disorders and Parkinson’s disease. At the University of Groningen, Dr. Abur’s lab examines a variety of biosignals to characterize typical and disrupted auditory function and speech production using an interdisciplinary approach combining engineering, hearing science, and speech science.

Kathaerina

Katharina Polsterer

PhD candidate
Katharina Polsterer is a PhD candidate under the supervision of Prof. Martijn Wieling and Dr. Defne Abur. She has a background in speech and language therapy as well as linguistics.

Katharina Polsterer

Katharina Polsterer is a PhD candidate under the supervision of Prof. Martijn Wieling and Dr. Defne Abur. She has a background in speech and language therapy as well as linguistics. Her research interests focus on the intersection of motor, sensory, and cognitive functions, with a particular focus on clinical implications. In her doctoral research, she investigates speech motor control in the context of typical aging, comparing it to Parkinson’s disease and cognitive decline. Katharina conducts her research within the Computational Linguistics group at the University of Groningen, where she contributes to both the Speech Lab Groningen and the Speech Biosignal Processing Lab (https://aburlab.web.rug.nl/). Additionally, she collaborates with the Department of Linguistics and Literary Studies at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and is affiliated with the Research School of Behavioral and Cognitive Neurosciences.

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Frank Tsiwah

Member
Frank's research focuses on the neurophysiological and cognitive mechanisms underlying speech and language processing in both clinical and healthy populations.

Frank Tsiwah

My research focuses on the neurophysiological and cognitive mechanisms underlying speech and language processing in both clinical and healthy populations. I explore how speech and language impairments are encoded in audio signals and textual data, leveraging Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning to detect and analyze these impairments. Using experimental, data-driven, and neurophysiological methods (e.g., EMG, EEG), I aim to understand disordered speech and language while developing innovative language technologies to support individuals with communication challenges. My work bridges Linguistics, Neuroscience, and AI to advance both theoretical understanding and practical applications.

Alexander

Alexander Martin

Affiliate member
Alexander is an assistant professor in the Linguistics and Dutch Language and Culture programmes at the Faculty of Arts.

Alexander Martin

I am an assistant professor in the Linguistics and Dutch Language and Culture programmes at the Faculty of Arts. I am an experimental phonologist and am generally interested in understanding how constraints on language change can explain typology. I use mostly experimental techniques to test how cognitive (perceptual and grammatical) factors and the social use of language influence the shape of linguistic systems.

Teja Rebernik

Affiliated founding member
Teja is an alumna and an affiliated founder member of Speech Lab Groningen
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Aude Noiray

Affiliate member
Aude is a senior researcher at Laboratoire de Psychologie & Neurocognition (LPNC) at Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA) in France.

Felix Reiss

Student assistant
Felix is a student assistant at Spraaklab Groningen supervised by Prof. Martijn Wieling. His work focuses on applying speech recognition models to the study of Dutch dialects.
Cato Piek

Cato Piek

Science communication officer
Cato is a regional language education consultant and science communication officer at the Groningen Language and Culture Centre.

Reihaneh Amooie

Member
Reihaneh is a PhD student supervised by Prof. Dr. Martijn Wieling, Matt Coler, Jelske Dijkstra and Wietse de Vries in the Speech Lab Groningen working on ASR for low-resource languages

Hedwig Sekeres

PhD candidate
Hedwig is a PhD student researching new speakers of Gronings and is supervised by Martijn Wieling and Remco Knooihuizen.

Valerie Querner

Research master student
Valerie is a research master Language and Cognition student at RUG and research assistant at the Heinrich-Heine Universität Düsseldorf (HHU) working under the supervision of Dr. Steven Gilbers (RUG) and Dr. Jasmin Pfeifer (HHU)
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Remco Knooihuizen

Assistant Professor of English Linguistics
Remco is an Assistant Professor of English Linguistics and a PhD supervisor for Hedwig Sekeres

Eva van Kampen

Research master student
Steven

Steven Gilbers

Assistant Professor English Linguistics

Nikki Hoekzema

Humanities Lab Coordinator

About

Speech Lab Groningen, led by prof. dr. Martijn Wieling, is a research group at the University of Groningen (Faculty of Arts).

Links

Contact

+ 31 6 10015021

m.b.wieling@rug.nl

Groningen, The Netherlands

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