Slides from Dr. Kuhl's lecture
Download PDF (4.6 MB – requires Adobe Reader®)
Graphic record
Biography
Patricia Kuhl holds the Bezos Family Foundation Endowed Chair in Early Childhood Learning and is co-director of the University of Washington's Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, director of the University of Washington’s National Science Foundation Science of Learning Center, and professor of speech and hearing sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Kuhl is internationally recognized for her research on early language and bilingual brain development, and studies that show how young children learn. Her work has played a major role in demonstrating how early exposure to language alters the brain, and how early measures of the brain’s response to language, predict the course of language development. These data have implications for bilingual education and reading readiness, for early diagnosis of developmental disabilities such as autism, and for research on ‘critical periods’ in human development.
Kuhl is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Rodin Academy and the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Acoustical Society of America and the American Psychological Society.
Dr. Kuhl was awarded the Silver Medal of the Acoustical Society of America in 1997, and in 2005, the Kenneth Craik Research Award from Cambridge University. She received the University of Washington's Faculty Lectureship Award in 1998. In 2007, Dr. Kuhl was awarded the University of Minnesota’s Outstanding Achievement Award. In 2008, Dr. Kuhl was one of 30 scientists worldwide invited to present their work at a Nobel symposium entitled, "Brain, Genes, and Behavior." She was the only scientist representing human development. In Paris in 2008, Dr. Kuhl was awarded the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Physics for her work on early learning and brain development.
Dr. Kuhl has participated in policy discussions related to education under two White House administrations and her work has been widely covered by the media.