Dr. Bryan Gick


Academic Co-Director, ELIE Research co-Lead, Professor, Simulating Languaging Bodies co-Lead

Department of Linguistics

Faculty of Arts

Research Themes:  Evolving Language in an Information Economy, The Communicating Mind and Body

Bryan Gick is the director of UBC’s Interdisciplinary Speech Research Laboratory (ISRL) and the head of the Linguistics department. His overarching research focus is on how people interact with each other and their environment, and how this interaction can inform models of linguistic communication. Bryan has studied this by exploring the physical mechanisms of speech production and their interactions with perception, phonology and phonetics in normal, disordered, and children’s speech, and across languages. In the course of this work, he and his collaborators have developed techniques for applying ultrasound imaging technology to speech research, protocols for studying haptic (tactile) perception of speech, methods for observing low-level planning in speech motor behaviour, and biomechanical simulations.

Research Interests

How people interact with each other and their environment, and how this interaction can inform models of linguistic communication; the physical mechanisms of speech production and their interactions with perception, phonology and phonetics in normal, disordered, and children’s speech, and across languages.

First Nations land acknowledegement

We acknowledge that UBC’s campuses are situated within the traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh, and in the traditional, ancestral, unceded territory of the Syilx Okanagan Nation and their peoples.


UBC Crest The official logo of the University of British Columbia. Urgent Message An exclamation mark in a speech bubble. Caret An arrowhead indicating direction. Arrow An arrow indicating direction. Arrow in Circle An arrow indicating direction. Arrow in Circle An arrow indicating direction. Chats Two speech clouds. Facebook The logo for the Facebook social media service. Information The letter 'i' in a circle. Instagram The logo for the Instagram social media service. External Link An arrow entering a square. Linkedin The logo for the LinkedIn social media service. Location Pin A map location pin. Mail An envelope. Menu Three horizontal lines indicating a menu. Minus A minus sign. Telephone An antique telephone. Plus A plus symbol indicating more or the ability to add. Search A magnifying glass. Twitter The logo for the Twitter social media service. Youtube The logo for the YouTube video sharing service.