• Cert Degree Requirements
• Curriculum

The PhD specialization in Language Music and Communication is administered by NICO Language, Music, and Communication a research unit of the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO). This unit serves as a nexus for scientists and engineers engaged in research on human communication systems at all levels, from physics to biology to minds and societies. NICO-LMC researchers meet regularly both in interdisciplinary colloquium series and workshops, and in numerous smaller focused working groups.

The certificate program covers aspects of cognition and language such as sound structure and the dynamics of processing. More importantly, it integrates theories of the mental representation of language with theories of all the other components of language systems, ranging from acoustics to population dynamics. Our program brings together long term basic research on language with an engineering effort in communications and a life sciences effort in communication sciences and disorders. This program is designed to address the needs of scientists and engineers who have an integrated human and technical perspective on human language and communication.

The benefits of a this program include: Access to laboratory facilities and advising arrangements outside the student's home department, a certificate with the Ph.D attesting to the students interdisciplinary competence, participation in the NICO-LMC graduate association, and participation in NICO activities more generally.

Faculty

The primary appointment for those faculty with joint or affiliate status in another program is noted in parentheses.