History of Speech and Language Technology

Kenneth N. Stevens is a principal investigator at the Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is also the Clarence J. LeBel Professor of Electrical Engineering in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT and a Professor of Health Sciences and Technology at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. He received his B.A.Sc. in 1945 and his M.A.Sc. in 1948, both from the Engineering Physics Department of the University of Toronto. His Sc.D. degree was obtained in 1952 from MIT, where he was part of the research staff of the RLE before joining the faculty in 1954. He has made seminal contributions in various areas of speech science, including the theory, mathematical methods and analysis of acoustics in speech production; the acoustic properties of speech sounds that comprise the linguistic elements of language; and acoustic invariance. Under his direction, the RLE has served for many years as a training center for many of the worlds leading speech scientists. Professor Stevens is a past president of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA). His many awards include the ASA silver medal in Speech Communication in 1983, the ASA gold medal in 1995, the European Speech Communication Association (ESCA) Medal for Scientific Achievement, and the National Medal of Science, the highest United States award for scientific achievement.

Additional information on Professor Stevens can be found at:
http://www.rle.mit.edu/rleonline/People/KennethN.Stevens_cv.html
and at:
http://www.isca-speech.org/awards/stevens.html

An interview was conducted with Professor Stevens at Interspeech 2005, the 9th European Conference on Speech Communication and Technology in Lisbon, Portugal, September 4-8, 2005, by Dr. Janet Baker. The text of this interview has not yet been transcribed, but a brief excerpt of the recorded interview is available.

Brief excerpt of recorded interview.