Rosario Signorello, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar
Department of Head & Neck Surgery
University of California, Los Angeles
Work Phone: +1 (310) 825-0736
Pers. Phone: +1 (323) 703-9549
E-mail: rosario.signorello@gmail.com - rsignorello@ucla.edu
Web: http://signorello.altervista.org
RESEARCH and TEACHING INTERESTS
Phonetics
Voice science
Social Psychology
Social Informatics
Affective Computing
Multimodal Communication (Speech, Facial Expression and Gesture)
EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
2010-2014
Ph.D. in Linguistics and Ph.D. in Social Psychology.
International joint program between the Université de Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France
and Università degli Studi Roma Tre, Rome, Italy. Title: “La Voix Charismatique : Aspects
Psychologiques et Caractéristiques Acoustiques.” Topic: Psychological aspects and acoustic
parameters of charismatic voice in political speech. Supervisors: Prof. Didier Demolin
(Grenoble) and Prof. Isabella Poggi (Rome). Date of defense: January 30, 2014. Final GPA
of “Très honorable avec Félicitations” (Highest honors of the jury).
2008-2010
Master Bac +5 (equiv. Master of Arts - 2 years) in Computational Linguistics. Stendhal University - Grenoble (France). College of Linguistics. Department of Informatics
and Pedagogy. My final dissertation was on human intercultural communicative behaviors
in face-to-face interaction, and it was particularly focused on audio-visual micro-events of
backchannel. Final GPA of “Très bien” (17/20).
2003-2007
Laurea Triennale (equiv. Bachelor’s degree - 3 years) in Modern Languages and Informatics.
University of Palermo (Italy). College of Letters and Philosophy. My final dissertation was
on collaborative learning theories and computer-supported collaborative learning with
Wikis. I developed a Wiki website called “Wiki-Learning” [http://wikilearning.pbworks.com] for collaborative on-line learning. Supervisor: Dr. Vito Evola. Final
GPA of 107/110.
CONFERENCES AND PUBLICATIONS
Signorello, R. (2014). The biological function of fundamental frequency in leaders' charismatic voices. The
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 136 (4), 2295-2295.
Signorello, R., Zhang, Z., Gerratt, B., Kreiman, J. (2014). Impact of vocal tract resonance on the perception of
voice quality changes caused by vocal fold stiffness. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 136 (4),
2295-2295
Signorello, R. and Demolin, D. (2013a). The physiological use of the charismatic voice in political speech. In
International Speech Communication Association, editor, Proceedings of the 14th Annual Conference of the
International Speech Communication Association (Interspeech 2013), pages 987–991, Lyon, France.
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D’Errico, F., Signorello, R., Demolin, D., and Poggi, I. (2013). The perception of charisma from voice. a crosscultural study. In IEEE Computer Society, editor, Proceedings of the 2013 Humaine Association Conference
on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction, pages 552–557, Geneva, Switzerland.
Signorello, R. and Demolin D. (2013b). The acoustic correlates of persuasive voice: a cross-language study.
Presented at the 10th PEVOC conference, 21-24 August, 2013, Prague, the Czech Republic.
Signorello, R., D’Errico, F., Poggi, I., Demolin, D., and Mairano, P. (2012a). Charisma perception in political
speech: a case study. In Mello, H., Pettorino, M., and Raso, T., editors, Proceedings of the VIIth GSCP
International Conference : Speech and Corpora, pages 343–348. Firenze University Press.
Signorello, R., D’Errico, F., Poggi, I., and Demolin, D. (2012b). How charisma is perceived from speech. A
multidimensional approach. In IEEE Computer Society, editor, ASE/IEEE International Conference on Social
Computing, pages 435–440, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
D’Errico, F., Signorello, R., and Poggi, I. (2012). Le dimensioni del carisma. In Cruciani, M. and Cecconi, F.,
editors, IX Convegno Annuale dell’Associazione Italiana di Scienze Cognitive - AISC 2012, pages 245–252,
Rome, Italy. Università di Trento.
Signorello, R., Poggi, I., Demolin, D., and D’Errico, F. (2011). Il carisma del corpo: caratteristiche acustiche
della voce carismatica. In X Giornate della Ricerca, Università degli Studi Roma Tre, Rome, Italy.
Signorello, R., Aubergé, V., Vanpé, A., Granjon, L., and Audibert, N. (2011). Indices de langue et de culture
dans les micro-événements audibles et visibles de l’interaction face à face. In RJCP 2011, Grenoble, France.
Signorello, R., Aubergé, V., Vanpé, A., Granjon, L., and Audibert, N. (2010). A la recherche d’indices de
culture et/ou de langue dans les micro-événements audio-visuels de l’interaction face à face. In Buisine, S.,
Sabouret, N., and Morge, M., editors, WACA 2010 : Des Agents et Des hommes, pages 69–76.
MANUSCRIPTS
Signorello, R. (2014). La Voix Charismatique : Aspects Psychologiques et Caractéristiques Acoustiques. Ph.D. Thesis in
Linguistics and Social Psychology, Université de Grenoble, France and Università degli Studi Roma Tre, Italy.
Signorello, R. (2010). La parole ne s’arrête pas aux mots : à la recherche d’indices de culture dans le backchannel audiovisuel. Unpublished master thesis, UFR Sciences du Langage, Spécialité Modélisation et Traitements
Automatiques en Industries de la Langue: Parole, écrit, Apprentissage. Université Stendhal - Grenoble 3,
Grenoble, France.
Signorello, R. (2007). Wiki-learning. teoria ed applicazione del collaborative learning via internet. Unpublished
bachelor thesis, Università Degli Studi Di Palermo, Italy, Facoltà Di Lettere e Filosofia, Corso Di Laurea In
Lingue Moderne Per Il Web, Palermo, Italy.
INVITED TALKS
“Acoustic characteristics of the charismatic voice”. Plenary session of the XXII Annual Pacific Voice
Conference (East), 12 April, 2014, Krakow, Poland.
“Aspetti psicologici del carisma e della leadership e strumenti per la descrizione del carisma in Italiano, Francese e
Portoghese Brasiliano”. University of Padova, Language and Communication Lab, invited by Prof. Maria Grazia
Busà. May 7, 2013.
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“Produzione della voce carismatica e percezione del carisma in Italiano, Francese e Portoghese Brasiliano”. University of
Padova, Language and Communication Lab, invited by Prof. Maria Grazia Busà. May 6, 2013.
“La voix charismatique des leaders politiques : influence des caractéristiques acoustico-prosodiques sur l’audience”.
Praxiling Laboratory, UMR 5267 CNRS, Université Paul-Valéry, Montpellier 3, Invited by Dr. Melissa BarkatDefradas. January 14, 2013
PRESS COVERAGE
Science
Got charisma? Depends on your voice by Ling Xin
http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2014/10/got-charisma-depends-your-voice
The Wall Street Journal
How to Train Your Voice to Be More Charismatic by Robert Lee Hotz
http://on.wsj.com/1tFeG2R
Le Monde
Le charisme vocal, objet de science by Sandrine Cabut
http://www.lemonde.fr/sciences/article/2014/11/04/le-charisme-vocal-objet-descience_4517933_1650684.html
BBC News Science & Environment
Charismatic speakers ‘manipulate their vocal frequency’ by Melissa Hogenboom
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-29800893
The American Institue of Physics
The Science of Charismatic Voices by Jason Bardi
http://www.newswise.com/articles/the-science-of-charismatic-voices
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-10/asoa-tso102314.php
The independent
What makes a politician sound charismatic? by Clint Witchalls
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/what-makes-a-politician-sound-charismatic-9836980.html
Radio France Internationale
Quand les politiques donnent de la voix by Frédérique Lebel
http://www.rfi.fr/emission/20141128-voix-politique-charisme-linguistique-psychologie/
Radio France, France Culture
Le Charisme by David Christoffel
http://plus.franceculture.fr/factory/radio-thesards/le-charisme
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2012/2013
Stendhal University - Grenoble 3 (France), Conducted graduate classes
> Teaching Fellow in Articulatory Phonetics, 64 hours
> Teaching Fellow in Informatics, 24 hours
2011/2012
Stendhal University - Grenoble 3 (France), Conducted graduate classes
> Teaching Fellow in Informatics, 64 hours
Roma Tre University, Educational Dept., Rome, Italy
> Tutorship in Experimental Methodology in Social Psychology, 12 hours
2010/2011
Stendhal University - Grenoble 3 (France), Conducted graduate classes
> Teaching Fellow in Articulatory Phonetics, 32 hours
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Sept. 09/June 10
Jan. 09/June 09
Nov. 08/April 09
Oct. 07/June 08
> Teaching Fellow in Informatics, 24 hours
Pierre Mendès France University - Grenoble 2 (France)
>Tutor in Computer Sciences
Taught computer classes in web communication and computer-supported collaborative
learning
Private High School and Secondary School “Les Portes de Chartreuse” in Voreppe
(France)
>Italian Teacher
Public Secondary School “Jean Vilar” in Echirolles (France)
>Italian Teacher
Public International Elementary School “Jean Jaurès” in Grenoble (France)
>Assistant Italien de langue étrangère (Italian Teaching Fellow)
COMMITTEES
Member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the XXII Annual Pacific Voice Conference (East) (http://
www.dsp.agh.edu.pl/pvc/), 11-13 April, 2014, Krakow, Poland.
Member of the scientific committee of the 4th International Symposium in Rhotics, R-atics 2013 (http://
www.gipsa-lab.fr/colloque/ratics4/), October 29-31, 2013, Bernin, Grenoble, France.
Member of the scientific committee of the Workshop on Conflict and Communication (http://
www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~vincia/conflict/), October 29-31, 2013. Rome, Italy.
Member of the RJCP 2011 (http://www.gipsa-lab.inpg.fr/colloques/RJCP/) organizing committee May 25-27,
2011. Grenoble, France.
MEMBERSHIPS
Member of the International Speech Communication Association (ISCA) (since 2013).
LANGUAGE SKILLS
Italian: mother tongue
Sicilian: mother tongue
English: fluent, native resident in the USA from 2014
French: fluent, native resident in France from 2007 to 2014
Spanish: basic notions
Brazilian Portuguese: basic notions
COMPUTER SKILLS
Operating Systems: Mac OS X, Windows and Linux operating systems
Analysis and Computation of Speech, Scripting: Praat, WinPitch, Phonedit, Sesane, Tandem-Straight (MatLab)
and Audacity
Statistical analysis environment and software: R for statistical computing and graphics and SPSS® 19
Online surveys: Limesurvey®
Scripting Languages: PHP and Javascript
Programming Languages: PERL and ProLog
Metalanguages: XML
Databases related: MySql, Microsoft Access® andOpenOffice.org Base
Internet & Web Design: XHTML, CSS
Content Management Systems: Wiki, TiddlyWiki, and PbWorks Wiki
Multimedia: VirtualDub, Macromedia Photoshop CS6
Office Technology: LaTeX, LyX, Microsoft Office® and LibreOffice.org tools
Reference Management Softwares: BibDesk, JabRef, Mendeley and Zotero!4
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E-learning: Moodle, Rosetta Stone®, Hot Potatoes - ExoGen
Cat Tools: Wordfast and Déjà Vu
Los Angeles, California
Dec 1, 2014
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