Some of our former Master's students.
Below, some of our past students, and what they are doing now:
Katherine Marcoux.
Who am I?: I am from the United States and studied Linguistics and Languages (Japanese and Spanish) as an undergraduate at Bryn Mawr College. After graduating, I taught English in Andorra for an academic year, during which I enjoyed teaching and living in a multilingual environment.
What am I doing now ?: I am a PhD candidate in Linguistics at Radboud University Nijmegen working under the supervision of Mirjam Ernestus and Esther Janse. My research focuses on how one clarifies their speech in a non-native language and the cognitive effort it takes. As part of ENRICH - a European Training Network, my PhD is funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie prorgamme.
My MBC thesis was: "Exploring the Universality in Personality Impressions from Brief, Novel Voices". My thesis director was Albert Costa
Candice Frances.
Who am I?: I am from Argentina. I have an undergraduate degree in Psychology that I obtained at New College of Florida (USA). After graduating, I took a year off and worked as a lab tech.
What am I doing now?: I am currently doing a PhD at the Basque Center on Cognition Brain and Language (BCBL) in San Sebastian. My project focuses on the effects of using different languages (namely a foreign language) and, more specifically, bilingual education.
My MBC thesis was: "The Effects of Regional Accents on Memory and Credibility". My thesis director was Prof. Albert Costa
Josefina Cruzat.
Who am I?: Speech Therapist with a Master degree in Neuropsychology. From Chile with pride, as the best wine ;)
Where am I now?: I joined the Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience group, at the University Pompeu Fabra, as a PhD student. In my ongoing PhD project, I am currently exploring global network dynamics in the human brain. More in detail, I am exploring integration, segregation and some other intracortical EEG signatures, during rest and multiple cognitive tasks. I am tackling this aim by measuring intracortical responses using stereotactic electrodes implanted within the brain in epileptic patients.
My MBC thesis was: "Measuring intracortical responses during word production". My thesis director was Prof. Albert Costa
Alexandre Celma.
Who am I?: I was born in Santa Perpètua de Mogoda, but I grew up in Castellvell del Camp. I studied a bachelor of science in high school (Reus, 2007) together with a professional music degree (Vila-seca de Solcina, 2010). I decided to look at linguistics and engaged in Catalan Philology at URV (2007-2012, Tarragona). Meanwhile, I worked as a violin and music theory teacher in Masroig. After having experienced an Erasmus year in Lyon (France), I worked as a Mobility assistant at URV. In 2012 I moved to Barcelona to start an interuniversity master in Cognitive Science and Language, which made me discover Biolinguistics. Thanks to a grant from AGAUR I worked two years in UB Linguistic department, which also allowed me to collaborate with Joana Rosselló and GramMaR research group. Currently, I started a recently-created master in Brain and Cognition at UPF, to work on the relation between music and language with Juan Manuel Toro.
Where am I now?: I'm engaged in the first year of the Biomedicine PhD program with Dr. Juan Manuel Toro at UPF.
My MBC thesis was: "Look at the beat, feel the meter: Top-down effects of meter induction on auditory and visual modalities". My thesis director was Juan Manuel Toro.
Martina Maier.
Who am I?: I am from Switzerland and came to Barcelona two years ago to do my first Master in Cognitive Systems and Interactive Media at Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Since I graduated I have been working in the SPECS Lab of Pompeu Fabra as a research assistant. Before I came to Barcelona I was working as a marketing specialist in various financial institutions and earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Communication.
Where am I now?: I am enrolled for a 3-year PhD at the SPECS Laboratory at University Pompeu Fabra.
My MBC thesis was: "Investigating Visual, Proprioceptive and Tactile Interaction through Sensorimotor Adaptation". My thesis director was Salvador Soto-Faraco.
Roser Cañigueral.
Who am I?: I am from Barcelona and I have a Biomedical Sciences undergraduate degree (University of Barcelona, 2014).
Where am I now?: I am doing a master of research in Cognitive Neuroscience at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience (University College of London). For my master project I am doing an experiment to analyze mentalizing and social motivation in autism.
My MBC thesis was: "The cooler you are, the more I learn: the role of social hierarchies on learning". My thesis director was Nuria Sebastian Galles.
Jasna Cakarun.
Who am I?: I come from Slovenia, and I am a Professor of English and Russian Language and Literature. During my time at university I became interested in linguistics and ultimately focussed on it entirely. I finished my 4-year undergraduate course with a BA researching wh-movement in the Russian language, which I tested with a psycholinguistic experiment. Besides studying, I work as an interpreter, translator, editor and language tutor.
Where am I now?: I am a Research Assistant for Prof Juan Manuel Toro, and we are continuing with the research on rule-learning in different context using sine-wave speech, as outlined in my master's thesis.
My MBC thesis was: "Triggering Linguistic Representation Over Sine-Wave Speech". My thesis director was Juan Manuel Toro Soto.
Mara Rolke.
Who am I?: Hi, I’m Mara. I did my undergraduate in Psychology at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. Originally I’m from Germany.
Where am I now?: I'm working as a psychologist in the department of neurology in a rehabilitation clinic in Germany. In parallel, I'm enrolled in further education to become a clinical neuropsychologist. The rest of my time I dedicate to research, currently working on a study about illness perception in people with epilepsy. Therefore, I would like to additionally start a PhD in the near feature.
My MBC thesis was: "The dynamics of perceptual bistability". My thesis director was Nava Rubin/Luca Bonatti.
Pedro Tiago Martins.
Who am I?: Before coming to UPF, I obtained a BA in Language Sciences from the University of Porto, and an MA in Cognitive Science and Language from the University of Barcelona.
Where am I now?: I will be starting a PhD in Cognitive Science and Language at the University of Barcelona, and I am a researcher at Biolinguistics Initiative Barcelona headed by Cedric Boeckx.
My MBC thesis was: "Generalizing rules over clicks". My thesis directors were Luca Bonatti and Juan Manuel Toro.
Andrea Riquelme.
Who am I?: I am from Alicante and I came to Barcelona to start my university studies in relation to Biology, and more concretely, to the Neurosciences. I completed my undergraduate degree of Biomedical Sciences in the University Pompeu Fabra (2010-2014).
Where am I now?: I am a PhD student in the UPF Speech Acquisition and Perception group, in CBC.
My MBC thesis was: "The social sense of belief-based action prediction in adults". My thesis director was Núria Sebastián.
Ryszard Cetnarski
Where am I now?: I am doing a Ph.d in neurophysiology in Warsaw (Nencki Institute of Biology).
My MBC thesis was: "Eye tracking measure for inferential processes in adults". My thesis director was Luca Bonatti and Nicolo Arlotti.
Lena Kevran.
Who am I?: French nationality with an academic background of a BA in Modern Languages and Linguistics, University of Oxford.
Where am I now?: I am now studying an Msc in Language Sciences (with a specialisation in Neuroscience and Linguistics) at UCL.
My MBC thesis was: "Speech perception: a comparative study of audiovisual matching in four and ten months-old infants".My thesis director was Nuria Sebastian-Galles, and Mathilde Fort.
Marc Gimeno Martinez
Who am I?: I have a bachelor degree in Pedagogy, in Speech therapy and I'm also a teacher specialized in hearing and language. I followed with a master in Neuroscience and behavioural Biology and currently I'm enrolled in the masters in Brain and cognition at UPF. I studied sign language and nowadays I work as a speech therapist in a public school with deaf children.
Where am I now?: I'm working part time at Tres Pins School with deaf children, attending regularly to the SPB group seminars, and continuing my research in the same field.
My MBC thesis was: "Categorical Perception in Catalan Sign Language". My thesis director was Albert Costa.
Serge Verzilin
Where am I now?: I am doing a Ph.D. at UPF CBC in computational neuroscience with Gustavo Deco.
My MBC thesis was: "Revealing the influence of definite brain regions upon the emergence of spatial and temporal patterns in the resting-state brain activity". My thesis director was Gustavo Deco.