Ph.D. candidates Fengyue (Lisa) & Zhao and Yao Zhang presented their ongoing research at  TAI 2025 (the 3rd International Conference on Tone and Intonation), held in Herrsching near Munich, Germany (16–18 May 2025).

Fengyue (Lisa) presented a paper on research she conducted with Dr. Jennifer Kuo - the paper was titled:  "Distributional Learning Across Contexts:  Learning Cantonese Tones in Naturalistic Speech" 

Yao presented a poster titled "Tone adaptation in loanwords: from Mandarin Chinese to Nuosu Yi".

The Cornell Phonetics lab was well represented by eleven students, alumni, faculty, and research collaborators at TAI 2025 (the 3rd International Conference on Tone and Intonation), held in Herrsching near Munich, Germany (16–18 May 2025).  See the accompanying photo!

First row: Fengyue (Lisa) Zhao (Cornell Phonetics Lab grad student), Dr. Sireemas Maspong (post-doctoral researcher, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich), Dr. Draga Zec (Professor Emeritus, Cornell University), Dr. Elizabeth Zsiga (Georgetown University), Yao Zhang (Cornell Phonetics Lab grad student), Dr. Yiya Chen (Leiden University)

Second row: Dr. Simon Roessig (University of York), Dr. Marc Brunelle (University of Ottawa), Dr. Robert Ladd (Professor Emeritus, University of Edinburgh), Dr. Francesco Burroni (post-doctoral researcher at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich),  Dr. Pittayawat Pittayaporn (Chulalongkorn University).  

The TAI 2025 conference theme was "Variation and change in tone and intonation systems across space and time", with the aim to foster a more diverse and comprehensive understanding of tone and intonation by exploring variation in geographical as well as physical space, along with the dynamic evolution of tone and intonation across various timescales.

Eight Phonetics Lab researchers attended PHUNY 2 (the Second Annual Meeting of Phonetics/Phonology in Upstate New York), held at the University of Buffalo North Campus on Saturday, May 3rd, 2025.

PHUNY is a small and friendly one-day workshop for Upstate NY graduate students working on any aspect of phonetics and/or phonology. In addition to presenting and discussing current research, PHUNY seeks to build build community and provide a venue for practicing conference skills.

Cornell Phonetics lab researchers gave the following presentations: 

1. Yao Zhang; The Role of Native Tonotactics in Tone Adaptation: Evidence from Nuosu Yi
2. Leonaro Antonio Silva Teixeira; Using Envelope Mode Decomposition to Analyze Rhythm Development in Brazilian Learners of English-L2
3. Annabelle di Lustro, Sam Tilsen, Abby Cohn; The effect of syllabic vs. moraic structure on anticipatory vowel nasalization in Japanese
4. Fengyue Lisa Zhao, Jennifer Kuo; Distributional Learning Across Contexts: Learning Cantonese Tones in Naturalistic Speech
5. Jennifer Kuo, Plenary: Types of Statistical Knowledge in Alternation Learning: Insights from Artificial Grammar Learning

Phonetics Lab alumnus Dr. Brynhildur Stefánsdóttir MacDonald (PhD 2023) has joined the Cornell Center for Regional Economic Advancement (CREA) as a Program Coordinator for entrepreneurship programs.

In her new position, Brynhildur provides support and coordination for individuals or startups seeking help and education in developing their product or business. CREA runs over 20 different programs, and within these Brynhildur supports the following programs aimed at PhDs and researchers: 

• -Dairy Runway: Supports dairy entrepreneurs from ideation through to growth by teaching customer discovery, business planning and development, and prototyping.

• -W.E. Cornell: helps STEM PhDs and postdocs commercialize their innovations and overcome the challenges of leading a growing technology-based business. 

• -NSF I-Corps North East Corridor: offer regional training courses to members of the scientific community that are pursuing commercialization. 

• -Technology Innovation Fellows Program:  Entrepreneurship initiatives aimed at helping PhD students and post-docs in the life sciences (LSTIF) or those focusing on clean energy and climate technology (GTIF) 

Brynhildur transitioned to this role to move from purely research-oriented work to areas within higher education that focus on student and community engagement.

She finds doing a PhD helped her in her new role, since it requires strong organizational skills, attention to detail, the ability to manage multiple priorities effectively and meet tight deadlines. Her dissertation research also helped her feel comfortable adapting to new programs. 

Brynhildur invites anyone with a unique product or service idea to contact her. She is currently working in downtown Ithaca, at CREA's startup incubator Rev, above the Bike Bar, near the Ithaca Commons.