Hasegawa-Johnson has been a long-term member of the Artificial Intelligence group in the HCII. He is a professor in electrical and computer engineering with a research focus on speech production and recognition by both humans and computers. His research seeks to apply higher-level knowledge from linguistics and psychology in order to specify the structure of machine learning models for automatic speech recognition. Hasegawa-Johnson has been involved in many collaborative research projects at the Beckman Institute and across campus.

Hasegawa-Johnson replaces Thomas Huang, professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, as co-chair. Huang was the longest-serving co-chair at the Beckman Institute.

“Tom Huang was my mentor when I first become co-chair of HCII in 1998,” said Art Kramer, director of the Beckman Institute and former HCII co-chair. “Tom's contributions to the Beckman Institute and the University of Illinois have been both broad and deep over the years. He has trained a large number of undergraduate and graduate students who have gone on to be successful scientists at universities and industries throughout the world.

“Tom was also instrumental in the development of the Illinois Simulator Lab at the Beckman Institute. He has also taken the lead on numerous interdisciplinary projects and grants at the university. I am sure that Tom will still be engaged at the Beckman Institute, working with his collaborators and students.”

“I am excited to be working with Mark in his new role as co-chair for the HCII main research theme,” said Kramer. “I fully expect him to take us in novel and interesting directions in interdisciplinary research and scholarship.”

The Thomas and Margaret Huang Fund for Graduate Research has been established to support graduate research in HCII, in honor of Thomas and Margaret Huang’s many contributions to science, engineering, and society at large. More information.