Sonja Kotz
Basic & Applied NeuroDynamics Laboratory
Maastricht University, Netherlands

Sonja Kotz is a translational cognitive neuroscientist, investigating temporal, rhythmic, and formal predictions in audition, music, and speech across the lifespan, pathologies (PD, stroke, tinnitus, psychosis, dyslexia), and animal models. In her research she utilizes a wide range of behavioral and neuroimaging methods (M/EEG, s/f/rsMRI, TMS). She heads the Neuropsychology section at Maastricht University (NL) and holds honorary professorships at the University of Leipzig (DE), and University of Lisbon (PT). She is a senior/associate editor for Imaging Neuroscience, Cortex, Neurobiology of Language, and PlosOne. Find out more about her Basic and Applied NeuroDynamics lab.

Srikantan Nagarajan
Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging
University of California, San Francisco

Srikantan Nagarajan, PhD, is a tenured Professor in the Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging at the University of California, San Francisco. His research interests include determining neural mechanisms of speech motor control and understanding human brain plasticity associated with learning and disease. He has been involved in the development and refinement of machine learning algorithms and computational models for multimodal structural and functional brain imaging, to help with diagnosis, monitoring and prognosis in various brain disorders. Dr. Nagarajan's current translational research program includes brain imaging studies in Dementias, Voice and Hearing Disorders, Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Brain Tumors, Epilepsy and Schizophrenia. He is a fellow of the IEEE and the AIMBE.

Kaila Stipancic
Buffalo Oromotor, Speech, & Swallowing Lab
University at Buffalo, USA

Dr. Kaila Stipancic is an assistant professor and director of the Buffalo Oromotor, Speech, & Swallowing Lab in the Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences at the University at Buffalo. She completed her PhD in Rehabilitation Sciences at the MGH Institute of Health Professions. Dr. Stipancic is also a licensed Speech-Language Pathologist who completed her clinical master’s degree at the University at Buffalo and her clinical fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a specialization in dysphagia prior to pursuing her PhD. This clinical training greatly influenced Dr. Stipancic’s research directions. Dr. Stipancic’s research seeks to advance the assessment of oromotor impairments and dysarthria for individuals with a variety of neurological etiologies using perceptual, acoustic, kinematic, and neurophysiologic methodologies. She is particularly interested in understanding and improving relevant outcome measures that are used clinically and in research settings, with the ultimate goal being to optimize the care of patients with oromotor impairments.