Postdoctoral Researcher Mentoring Plan
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Postdoctoral Researcher Mentoring Plan
Dr. Puisan Wong will join the PI’s research team as a postdoctoral researcher. Dr. Wong
received her doctoral training in speech-hearing-language sciences. She is a licensed speechlanguage pathologist and currently a research scientist in the Eye and Ear Institute at the Ohio
State University. Her research focuses on lexical tone production by typically and atypically
developing children and bilingual speakers. Dr. Wong’s participation in the proposed project will
significantly advance her professional career by gaining research, publication, and grantpreparation experience at an institution with multiple experts in tone perception research, which
complements her current research on tone production. She will also benefit from the PI’s
successful experience in teaching and mentoring undergraduate and graduate students.
Importantly, Dr. Wong’s participation will significantly enhance the scientific merit of the
proposed project because of her trilingual background (Cantonese, Mandarin, and English) and
relevant skills in lexical tone research. Her language background, research interests, and career
aspirations are all synergistic to the PI’s research and teaching program. The mentoring plan
includes the following activities:
1. Guidance on effective collaborations with researchers from diverse backgrounds and
disciplinary areas: The PI’s institution currently has three faculty members conducting
research on lexical tones. The PI’s research examines the cognitive and linguistic aspects of
lexical tone perception. Dr. Li Xu is an established scholar in tone perception by cochlear
implant users. Dr. Fuh-Cherng Jeng is an emerging researcher in the auditory physiology of
tone perception. The three individuals were trained in traditionally diverse disciplinary areas,
but all share a thematic interest in tone perception and a history of successful collaborations.
Dr. Wong’s research interests are fully compatible with these existing research programs. In
addition, Dr. Wong will also participate in international collaborations in the project. She will
benefit from collaborations with researchers from these diverse backgrounds and areas.
2. Training in preparation of grant proposals, publications and presentations: The PI has a
track record of publishing lexical tone studies in high-impact journals such as the Journal of
Phonetics, Language and Speech, Speech Communication, and Journal of the Acoustical
Society of America. The writing experience will be shared with Dr. Wong through joint work
on manuscript and grant proposal preparation. Dr. Wong will also have ample opportunities
to interact with faculty members in the PI’s academic unit who have had sustained research
support from federal agencies including Dr. Li Xu (NIH), Dr. James Montgomery (NIH), and
Dr. Brooke Hallowell (NIH & NSF).
3. Guidance on ways to improve teaching and mentoring skills: The PI has extensive
teaching and mentoring experience with a wide range of students including undergraduate,
clinical master’s, clinical doctoral, research doctoral, and honors students. The PI is
particularly interested in how to engage students in teaching basic science courses to
clinically oriented students. The PI is also keenly aware of the challenges facing faculty
members who are nonnative speakers of English. The PI’s success in teaching has been
recognized with the University Professor award at Ohio University as well as nominations
for several college- and university-wide teaching awards. The experience will be shared with
Dr. Wong through classroom observations and individual teaching consultations.