Dr Felix Schaeffler (M.A., PhD) is a Lecturer in the Speech and Hearing Sciences Division. He is also a full member of Clinical Audiology, Speech and Language Research Centre.
- Overview
- Research Interests
- Research Publications
- Teaching & Learning
- Activities & Awards
I was born and grew up in Munich, Germany and also studied for my first degree there.
I hold an MA in Psycholinguistics (with Phonetics and Logopedics as minor subjects) from the University of Munich, and worked as a research and teaching assistant for the Institute of Phonetics and Speech Processing in Munich (IPS, formerly IPSK) after my degree completion.
In 2001 I moved to Umeå, Sweden to join the SweDia 2000 project as a PhD student. I completed my PhD in 2005. My PhD thesis addressed “Phonological Quantity in Swedish Dialects: Typological Aspects, Phonetic Variation and Diachronic Change”.
I joined QMU and SHS/CASL (formerly SSRC) in 2006 as a research associate, working on various projects, including commercialization projects funded by Scottish Enterprise and the ESRC funded project ‘Cross-Language Differences in Pitch Range’ (RES-000-22-1858).
In 2009 I became a lecturer in Speech and Hearing Sciences at QMU.
A large proportion of my research in recent years has addressed the prosody of speech, especially intonation and voice quality.
I have worked on intonation from both a clinical and cross-linguistic perspective, for example as a research associate on the ESRC funded project ‘Cross-Linguistic Differences in Pitch Range’ (PI Prof Ineke Mennen). I have collaborated on topics of intonation and voice quality with colleagues from the Universities of Stirling, Abertay Dundee, Bangor University and the University of Bristol, and I am currently collaborating with colleagues from QMU and the University of Umeå, Sweden, investigating the prosodic effects of Parkinson’s disease.
My research on voice quality focuses on issues of occupational voice disorder and acoustic voice assessment for clinical and non-clinical purposes.
I am a co-founder of the Community Interest Company FitvoiceTM, which provides a technology-enabled, smartphone-assisted voice care service.
I am teaching various topics at undergraduate and postgraduate level, including:
- Speech and Language Development
- Bilingualism
- Speech science and acoustic analysis of speech
- Investigative methods
- Syntax and morphology
Finalist SIE New Ventures Competition 2016, team member “Fitvoice”
Research Incentive Grant, Mobile voice monitoring for occupational voice users (Ref 70230). Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, 09/2015-08/2016
Finalist Converge Challenge 2015, “Fitvoice”, Social Enterprise Category
Prototype development support (together with Dr Janet Beck), Voice Health Check Tool,
Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh and Lothian, 2008
Talent retention support (together with Dr Janet Beck), Voice Health Check Tool,
Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh and Lothian, 2007
