Lab Director
Rajka Smiljanic (PI)
Email: rajka@austin.utexas.edu
Current members
Graduate Students
Kirsten Meemann, LIN
Kirsten is a 5th-year Ph.D. student in Linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research focuses on speech perception and language processing. In particular, she is interested in the effect of clear speech and different types of noise on speech perception, and in the role of cognitive mechanisms to cope with such noise. In her spare time, she enjoys reading thrillers, listening to podcasts, and running (despite the Texas heat). Email: kirsten.meemann@gmail.com
Zhe-Chen Guo, LIN
Zhe-chen Guo is a 3rd-year Ph.D. student in Linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin. He joined the lab in Fall 2018. His research focuses on prosody and speech perception. Currently, he is interested in how listeners use prosodic information to accomplish speech segmentation and how different listening conditions affect their segmentation performance. In his free time, he enjoys cooking and writing codes for fun.
Email: y9024131@gmail.com
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Madison Rider
Madison is a fourth-year Linguistics and English double major with a UTeach Liberal Arts minor. In her free time, she enjoys reading and spending time with family.
Eliana Spradling
Eliana is a third-year Linguistics major with an Ancient Greek minor. In her free time, she enjoys designing, baking, and decorating cakes and other tasty treats.
Lab alumni
Graduate Students & Postdocs
Sarah Ransom-Laud, LIN
Last known position: PhD program, Linguistics, UT
Sandie Keerstock, LIN
Last known position: Visiting Researcher, Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri
Steven Alcorn, SPN
Last known position: Postdoctoral Research Scholar, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Indiana University at Bloomington
Niamh Kelly, LIN
Last known position: Assistant Professor, American University of Beirut, Lebanon
Cindy Blanco, LIN
Last known position: Learning Scientist, Duolingo
Rachael Gilbert, LIN
Last known position: Principal Data Scientist at Trello
Kristin Van Engen, Postdoc
Last known position: Assistant Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences at Washington University
Elisa Ferracane, LIN
Last known position: PhD program, Linguistics, UT
Hoyoung Yi, CSD
Last known position: Assistant Professor, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center
Gayatri Rao, PSYCH
Last known position: Assistant Director of Reporting and Analytics, UT
Matthias Sjerps, visiting graduate student
Last known position: Researcher at the Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging at the Radboud University Nijmegen
Lauren Ayres, Graduate CSD
Natalia Czimskey, Graduate CSD
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Frida Ballard
In the lab: 2018-2020
Gabrielle Shaddock
In the lab: 2018-2020
Meryl Xiong
In the lab: 2019-2020
Alexandra Brown
In the lab: 2019-2020
Riley Pruden
In the lab: 2019-2020
Irene Smith, LIN
Last known position: Environmental Sciences Lab, Applied Research Labs, UT
Luis De La Cruz, LIN, English
Last known position: Teach for America, Roma High School, Rio Grande Valley
Jai Lyn Pena, LIN
Last known position: PhD program, Linguistics, New York University
Kevin Lilley, LIN
Last known position: PhD program, Linguistics, Ohio State University
Sarah Blackshear, LIN
Last known position: Ads Integrity Analyst, Accenture, Austin, TX
Marina Gavino, LIN
Last known position: PhD program, Linguistics, Northwestern University
Kaylee Kocurek
Olivia Naworol
Liliana Terry, LIN
Last known position: Software Engineering Intern at Microsoft
Hannah Ray, LIN
Lauren Franklin, LIN
Last known position: PhD program, Dept of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences, Brown
Maddie Oakley, French
Last known position: PhD program, Linguistics, Georgetown
Emily Tagtow, LIN
Andrea Manrique, LIN
Last known position: Paralegal at Briggle & Polan , PLLC, Austin, TX.
N. Garcia-Holmes, LIN
Last known position: Assistant for Operations at The University of Texas at Austin
Michelle Dubois, LIN, Dean’s Distinguished Graduate (College of Liberal Arts) 2016.
Last known position: Spanish instructor, Freestyle Language Center, Austin, TX.
Gaby Cook, CSD
Cristabella Trimble-Quiz, LIN
Karen Johnson, CSD
Last known position: Northwest Elementary School, Pflugerville Independent School District
Jose Martinez
Kiki Adams, LIN
Corina Trevino, LIN / CSD Intellectual Entrepreneurship internship program
Aidan Aannestad, LIN
Nicholas Victor, CSD
Samantha Sebastian, LIN
Anais Callejon, LIN
Randall Rouse, LIN
Gabriela Saenz, CSD
Rob Corona, LIN
Lauren Burleson, LIN
Johanna Emily Boardman, LIN
Jasmine Beitz, CSD
Samantha Gordon Danner, LIN
Last known position: PhD program, Linguistics, USC
Lab pictures
UT Sound Lab 