Language Evolution and Computation » Kenny

PhD for Alan Nielsen

Kenny — Tue, 10 May 2016 14:39:42 +0000

Congratulations to Dr Alan Nielsen, who was awarded his PhD on 10th May – Alan’s thesis was titled “Systematicity, Motivatedness, and the Structure of the Lexicon”, and was supervised by Kenny Smith and Simon Kirby.

The LEC is becoming the Centre for Language Evolution

Kenny — Fri, 06 May 2016 10:27:54 +0000

We’re evolving! The Language Evolution and Computation Research Unit was established back in 1997 by Jim Hurford and Simon Kirby, and has grown substantially since then to become (we think) the world’s leading group of researchers working on language origins and evolution. To reflect our increased size, and also the increased breadth of the techniques we use (we still build computational models, but it’s not all we do), we’ve decided to rebrand as the Centre for Language Evolution. Look out for a our website and logo, appearing here soon.

Jim Hurford, Fellow of the British Academy

Kenny — Fri, 17 Jul 2015 07:25:44 +0000

LEC founder Prof. Jim Hurford has been elected to the British Academy, in recognition of his outstanding research. Congratulations Jim!

PhD for Bill Thompson

Kenny — Mon, 25 May 2015 13:09:31 +0000

Congratulations to Dr Bill Thompson, who was awarded his PhD on 25th May – Bill’s thesis was titled “Transmission, Induction, and Evolution”, and was supervised by Kenny Smith and Simon Kirby. Bill is currently working as a post-doc with Bart de Boer in the AI lab at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

PhD for Vanessa Ferdinand

Kenny — Fri, 01 May 2015 08:05:49 +0000

Congratulations to Dr Vanessa Ferdinand, who was awarded her PhD on 30th April. Vanessa’s PhD was supervised by Simon Kirby and Kenny Smith, and her thesis was titled “Inductive evolution: cognition, culture and regularity in language”. She is currently an Omidyar Fellow at the Santa Fe Institute.

Justin Sulik off to LupyanLab

Kenny — Mon, 24 Nov 2014 16:25:30 +0000

More job news: Justin Sulik, who recently completed his thesis in the LEC (supervised by Kenny and Jim, thesis title “Cognition at the Symbolic Threshold”), is off to join Gary Lupyan’s group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, starting January 2015. Good luck Justin!

PhD for Cat Silvey

Kenny — Mon, 10 Nov 2014 09:05:05 +0000

Congratulations to Dr Catriona Silvey, who was awarded her PhD on 7th November. Cat did her PhD with Kenny Smith and Simon Kirby, on “The communicative emergence and cultural evolution of word meanings”; since her viva she has been working in the Goldin-Meadow lab at the University of Chicago.

Farewell to Vanessa, Cat and Bill

Kenny — Tue, 07 Oct 2014 08:11:27 +0000

Very best of luck to Vanessa Ferdinand, Catriona Silvey and Bill Thompson, who have finished up their PhDs in the LEC and headed off to fantastic post-doc positions elsewhere.

Vanessa (thesis title: “Inductive Evolution: the cognitive explanation of cultural change and regularity in language”) is off to the Santa Fe Institute, to take up an Omidyar Fellowship.

Cat (thesis title: “The Communicative Emergence and Cultural Evolution ofWord Meanings”) is joining Susan Goldin-Meadow’s lab at the University of Chicago.

Last but not least, Bill (thesis title: “Transmission, Induction, and Evolution”) is moving to Brussels, to work on Bart de Boer’s ERC-funded project at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

Don’t forget to come back and visit us from time to time!

PhDs for James Thomas and Justin Sulik

Kenny — Thu, 02 Oct 2014 14:36:14 +0000

Congratulations to Dr James Thomas and Dr Justin Sulik, who were awarded their PhDs this week. James did his PhD with Simon Kirby and Richard Shillcock (Informatics), on “Self-domestication and Language Evolution”; since his PhD he has been working as a post-doc with Richard. Justin was supervised by Kenny Smith and Jim Hurford, and his thesis was titled “Cognition at the Symbolic Threshold: The role of adductive inference in hypothesising the meaning of novel signals”. He is currently a course tutor for psychology and linguistics on the University’s International Foundation and Open Studies Programmes.

Jennifer Culbertson joins the LEC

Kenny — Thu, 18 Sep 2014 15:51:11 +0000

Jennifer Culbertson has joined the LEC as a Chancellor’s Fellow. Jenny works on the relationship between biases in language learning biases and typological universals, using artificial language learning and computational modelling techniques. We are very excited to have her on the team – welcome aboard Jenny!