Timothy Tianze Xu

I am a doctoral researcher in Computational Linguistics and Phonetics at the University of Zurich, supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions as part of the Voice Communication Sciences project. I am supervised by Professor Dr Volker Dellwo and Dr Elisa Pellegrino, as well as Professor Pascal Belin from Aix-Marseille University. Previously, I completed an MPhil in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics at the University of Cambridge (Distinction), where I investigated perceived voice similarity among Cantonese–English bilinguals under the supervision of Dr Kirsty McDougall. I also hold a BA in Language Science from Shanghai International Studies University, where I worked on my thesis exploring argument structure processing using naturalistic fMRI with Professor Xiaoming Jiang.

My research focuses on the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying voice perception across different languages, speech contexts and temporal scales, employing behavioural, neuroscientific, and computational methods. More broadly, I am interested in topics within cognitive and language sciences, including syntactic–semantic structure and the convergence between human brains and artificial intelligence. My work has appeared in NeuroImage, Behavior Research Methods, and Cambridge Occasional Papers in Linguistics.