Haskins Laboratories
The Science of the Spoken and Written Word
Haskins Laboratories is an international, multidisciplinary community of researchers who conduct basic and applied research on spoken and written language and related topics. Exchanging ideas, fostering collaborations, and forging partnerships across the sciences, it has produced groundbreaking research that enhances our understanding of—and reveals ways to improve or remediate—speech perception and production, reading and reading disabilities, and human communication. We continue to serve as an intellectual and resource hub as we actively develop future opportunities and collaborations.
Ovid Tzeng Wins Lifetime Achievement Award
Yale-UConn Haskins Global Literacy Hub
The University of Connecticut, Yale University, and Haskins Laboratories have announced the Haskins Global Literacy Hub to help improve literacy outcomes locally and globally.
The Haskins Global Literacy Hub is an international and interdisciplinary collaborative group that brings together an unprecedented partnership of over 20 teams of expert researchers, practitioners, educators, and education technology specialists from all continents. Motivated by scientific evidence pointing to literacy as a crucial steppingstone to escaping poverty and leading healthy, productive and fulfilling lives, our goal is to improve literacy development across cultures, languages and continents.
The Haskins Global Literacy Hub operates as a multi-institutional network, with key centers at Yale University School of Medicine’s Child Study Center, led by Linda Mayes (referred to as the “Global Literacy Hub” at Yale), and at UConn Waterbury, led by Fumiko Hoeft, as well as UConn Storrs/Global, led by Daniel Weiner (referred to as the “Haskins Global Literacy Hub” at UConn). The Haskins Global Literacy Hub is co-led by Kenneth Pugh, Fumiko Hoeft, Benjamin Powers, Maureen Lovett, John Russell, Jay Rueckl, Vincent Gracco, Mary Young, and Sumita Saluja. With a global reach, the Hub promotes cross-cultural literacy research and educational outreach. The literacy hubs at Yale and UConn are unified under a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), signed in April 2024. The Haskins Global Literacy Hub, with leadership across both universities, is advancing global partnerships in Argentina, Jamaica, Taiwan, India, and Israel, working to translate Haskins science to improve literacy outcomes in the US and abroad.
Haskins Laboratories coexists with the Haskins Global Literacy Hub, operating under the same structure at both Yale and UConn with global institutional partners and researchers, and under the same MOU. It is co-led by Kenneth Pugh, Nicole Landi, Fumiko Hoeft, Vince Gracco, Jay Rueckl, Douglas Whalen, and Philip Rubin. After more than 75 years as an independent not-for-profit institution, Haskins Laboratories has transitioned to a collaborative model between Yale University School of Medicine (Yale Child Study Center) and the University of Connecticut. Haskins-affiliated researchers continue to focus on speech, language, reading, and neuromodulation, while maintaining strong technical infrastructure in New Haven (Yale) and Storrs (UConn), with an emerging research site in Waterbury (UConn). At the heart of Haskins Laboratories are the people who are part of the Haskins community. This includes affiliates, part-time investigators, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students from a variety of institutions.
Ovid Tzeng Wins Lifetime Achievement Award.
Professor Ovid Tzeng, long-time Board member and colleague to many at Haskins Laboratories, received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 14th Conference for Chinese Psychologists, which was held on March 27-28, 2026 at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen (CUHK-Shenzhen). Ying-Yi, a member of the Awards Committee said: “On behalf of the committee, it is my great pleasure to share the wonderful news that you have been unanimously selected as a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award. The Conference for Chinese Psychologists has a proud tradition of honoring distinguished contributors to Chinese psychology with this award, and your contributions to the field have been truly outstanding. This recognition is long overdue, and we very much hope you will be willing to accept it.” As an Academician of Academia Sinica and an internationally renowned cognitive neuroscientist, Ovid has made pioneering contributions to the fields of neurolinguistics, reading processes, and memory mechanisms.The award was presented at the conference’s opening ceremony on 27 March 2026. A citation recognizing Ovid’s lifetime contributions to psychology was printed in the conference materials and distributed to all attendees.
Acoustical Society of America, Philadelphia Meeting, 11-15 May 2026.
The 190th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America will be held at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown Hotel, Philadelphia, 11-15 May 2026. Deadlines are coming up for registration and hotel reservations. For additional information, go to the Philadelphia Meeting Information Page.
Haskins Seminar Series.
The most recent Haskins Seminar took place on Thursday, October 30, 2025, at 3:00 PM, and featured Dr. Amy Margolis from The Ohio State University, Child Mind Institute. This seminar was held virtually.
For additional information, please refer to the meeting flyer.
Warm regards, Haskins Global Team
Stephen R. Anderson (1943 - 2025).
We are very sad to report that our friend and colleague, Steve Anderson, died on October 13, 2025. In addition to being a member of the Yale Linguistics Department from 1994 until his retirement in 2017, he was a long time member of the Haskins Board of Directors and a supporter of both Haskins and the Endangered Language Fund. He was a brilliant scholar, a friend and mentor to many, and an inspiration. He will be missed. See the Yale Linguistics In Memoriam page for additional information.
See the New York Times obituary.
Philip Rubin news.
In January 2026, Philip Rubin, CEO Emeritus and former Chair of the Board of Haskins Laboratories, was named as a member of the IEEE AgeTech Initiative leadership team.
From March 29 through April 1, 2026, Rubin was an invited participant at the Asilomar for the Brain and Mind conference at the Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, California.
ASY (Articulatory Synthesis) Demo
The legacy ASY Demo (articulatory synthesis) was added to this website on Jan. 24, 2024.
The Endangered Language Fund (ELF)
The Endangered Language Fund (ELF) is a 501(c)3 founded by Doug Whalen in 1996 with the goal of supporting endangered language revitalization and documentation projects. Its main mechanism for supporting work on endangered languages has been funding grants to individuals, tribes, and museums. ELF’s grants have promoted work in over 60 countries and have funded a wide range of projects,