Meet Our Team

---

Lorenzo is an Assistant Professor of Hispanic Linguistics, working primarily in the fields of Second Language Acquisition, Psycholinguistics and Sociophonetics. His research focuses on the development of fluency and cognitive abilities by second-language learners and how factors such as cognition, syntactic complexity, and word order affect second-language speech development. He is the 2020 winner of Michigan's Golden Apple Award.

Nick is an Associate Professor of Hispanic Linguistics, and currently serves as the Associate Chair in the Department of Romance Languages & Literatures. His research areas include laboratory phonology, experimental phonetics and sociophonetics, focusing on Andalusian and Argentinian Spanish. He is the Principal Investigator of the "From Africa to Patagonia: Voices of Displacement" Humanities Collaboratory project.

Andries is a Professor of Linguistics, Director of the African Studies Center, and Senior Advisor for Africa to the Provost. He is also editor of Language, flagship journal of the Linguistic Society of America, and an honorary professor at the North-West University, his South African alma mater. His research areas include theoretical phonology, the time course of the production and perception of coarticulation, and Afrikaans sociophonetics.

Olivia Abraham is a senior (graduating in May 2025) pursuing a Bachelor of Science in both Neuroscience and Spanish. Following graduation, she is interested in pursuing her doctorate in optometry. Olivia is currently working on a lab project which studies vowel laxing patterns in the Andalusian dialect.

Claire is graduating in 2027 with a prospective degree in English and Linguistics. She plans to attend graduate school for further studies in the social sciences and/or humanities. In the lab, Claire is working on analysis of the functions of falsetto voice in Western Andalusian Spanish social dynamics.

Cassie is graduating in 2023 with a degree in Linguistics and Spanish. She is planning to attend graduate school for speech language pathology and hopes to work bilingually in English and Spanish. Currently, she is working on the linguistic analysis of whisper-voice in broadcasting.

Isa graduated in May 2024 with a Bachelor of Science in Architecture and Bachelor of Arts degrees in Spanish and German. Currently, she is teaching English at a secondary school in Córdoba, Spain. She is interested in the regional differences present within the Andalusian dialect.

Micha Fischer is a fifth-year PhD student in the statistical emphasis of the Michigan Program in Survey Methodology. In his dissertation, Micha evaluates a new method for imputation of missing data in high-dimensional data sets. Within the Collaboratory, Micha collaborates with Lorenzo, Nick, and Brady to provide statistically-sound analyses and data visualization of all empirical findings.

Claudia is graduating in 2023 with degrees in Computer Science and Cognitive Science, and plans to work in Artificial Intelligence in the future. In the lab, Claudia helps create graphs for various projects in the lab and is currently creating a tutorial for people to learn how to program in R.

Katie graduated in 2019 with degrees in both Spanish and Linguistics. In the future, she would like to continue her linguistic studies in graduate school. In the SPL, Katie helps analyze /kj/ glide in Afrikaans and Spanish bilingual speakers in Patagonia and aspiration after voiceless stops in Andalusian Spanish. She also works on the lab’s social media presence.

Elliot is set to graduate in 2025. He is pursuing a BSI in UX design with a minor in Spanish. Elliot is from Cincinnati and is new to the Speechlab team. He plans to pursue a career in UX design and computer science.

Kelly is a U-M alumna ('19) with degrees in Cognitive Science and RLL. As an SPL research assistant, she currently works on lab publications, outreach, and administrative tasks, in addition to curating the STIRRS repository. She is also the coordinator of the UC San Diego Language and Development Lab.

Lucas is graduating in Fall 2022 with a BA in Spanish and a BMA in Voice Performance. Following graduation, he plans to teach English in Spain and continue on to pursue graduate studies in Spanish Linguistics. In the lab, Lucas is investigating the social functions of Seseo, Ceceo, and Distinción in Andalusian Spanish.

Kaitlyn is graduating in 2024 with degrees in Spanish and Linguistics. She plans to teach English abroad before attending graduate school. In the lab, Kaitlyn is currently working on her honors thesis analyzing acoustic patterns in Andalusian Spanish.

Alex Stamell graduated in 2024 with a bachelor’s degree in Romance languages and literatures. He studied Spanish, Portuguese, and Ladino at the university.

Horas! I'm Juan, from Indonesia. I am part of the class of 2022, majoring in computer science and linguistics through the college of LS&A. In the future, I have plans to go to grad school possibly in cognitive science. In the lab, I worked on the online repository project and currently working on the Spanish Pupillometry Project.

Oona graduated in May 2024 with a Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics and Judaic Studies. While at the university she studied Spanish and Ladino. She is most interested in the intersection of sociolinguistics and phonetics and has worked on projects studying Andalusian Spanish and Afrikaans.

Nik is set to graduate in 2026 with dual majors in Spanish and Biology and a minor in Music. As a new member of the SPL team, he is currently analyzing intervocalic /ptk/ modifications among Spanish speakers from Buenos Aires. He is also the President of the Men’s Glee Club and a Resident Advisor for the LSA Honors Program.

Jerry is set to graduate in 2026. He is pursuing a Major in Computer Science with a minor in English. Currently he is working as the developer for the Speech Lab webpage. In his free time he enjoys skiing and playing badminton.

DOB: April 25, 2020

Adoption date: July 10, 2020

Some hobbies include standing on two feet, taking out the garbage, eating furniture, and growling at horses.

DOB: June 10, 2020

Adoption date: August 5, 2020

Some hobbies include climbing stairs, wagging her tail, receiving hugs, and chasing Toby around the house.

DOB: April 3, 2024

Some hobbies include playing with toys, giving kisses, pretending to fly, and munching on bones.