PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Denis Burnham

Denis Burnham is a speech researcher whose work connects infant development with human-computer interaction. He studied infant perceptual development at Monash and the University of NSW, then became the inaugural director of MARCS at the University of Western Sydney. His research ranged from children's auditory-visual speech and computer-generated talking heads to speech with avatars and the AusTalk corpus. Elected a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia in 2018, he is affiliated with Western Sydney University's MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour & Development as of October 2026.

Works
301

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 19 October 2026. Citations and h-index are hidden because this OpenAlex record may be incomplete or mix in other authors.

Timeline

  1. 1975–1999

    Infant perception at Monash and UNSW

    He researches infant perceptual development during a psychology PhD at Monash, then works in Psychology at the University of NSW from 1981 to 1999.

  2. 1999–2014

    Founding MARCS director

    He becomes the inaugural Director of MARCS at the University of Western Sydney in 1999 and holds the role through 2014.

  3. 2004–2006

    Speech perception and computer heads

    In 2004, he and Kaoru Sekiyama examine auditory-visual speech perception in adults, infants, and children; they report that infants perceive the McGurk effect and that auditory-visual speech perception improves in English-language children, especially between ages 6 and 8. By 2006, as director of the MARCS Auditory Laboratories at the University of Western Sydney, he leads a project that combines computer animation, speech recognition, and computer-generated dialogue in a head designed to emulate face-to-face conversation.

  4. 2010

    Speech to an avatar

    In 2010, he, Sebastian Joeffry, and Lauren Rice report greater vowel hyperarticulation in computer-directed speech to an auditory-visual avatar than to another person, both before and after error correction. They discuss the results for human-computer interaction and talking-head applications.

  5. 2011

    Building the AusTalk corpus

    In 2011, he coauthors a report on AusTalk, an audio-visual corpus of Australian English being built by recording speech from 1,000 geographically and socially diverse speakers with a uniform, automated protocol.

  6. 2018

    An Academy fellowship and infant tones

    The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia elects him a Fellow in 2018. In a 2018 study with colleagues, he compares lexical-tone sensitivity in monolingual and bilingual infants during novel-word learning.

  7. September 2026

    Tracking infant speech rhythms

    In September 2026, he coauthors a study of cortical tracking of speech in 4- and 8-month-old infants learning English, French, and Japanese. The study finds efficient tracking at 5 and 10 Hz, with inconsistent tracking at 2.5 Hz.

  8. As of October 2026

    At the MARCS Institute

    As of October 2026, he is affiliated with Western Sydney University's MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour & Development.

Career

  1. Since 1999Western Sydney UniversityDirector
  2. 1981–1999UNSW Sydney

Education

  1. From 1975Monash UniversityPhD

From the biography.

  1. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers rose from 2% to 32%Includes Western Sydney University. We estimate where leading AI researchers worked when their most-cited papers appeared. The company share rose from 2% in 1975–1979 to 32% in 2020–2024.
  2. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes UNSW Sydney. Our estimates of where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led, from education records in cited biographies.
  3. Stanford University trained or employed 20 of the 89 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes UNSW Sydney. Stanford University trained or employed 20 of the 89 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and employment links for major-prize and best-paper winners.
  4. Google had the most people shaping AI every year from 2014 to 2025Our estimates of which organizations employed the most people shaping AI from 1961 to 2025, with a year-by-year chart.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Denis Burnham yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Brown Bag Talk by Prof Denis Burnham on 24 February blog.nus.edu.sg. Checked 19 October 2026.
  2. Issues in the development of auditory-visual speech perception: adults, infants, and children isca-archive.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  3. Two tickets? Certainly sir abc.net.au. Checked 19 October 2026.
  4. D-o-e-s-n-o-t-c-o-m-p-u-t-e: vowel hyperarticulartion in speech to an auditory-visual avatar researchers.westernsydney.edu.au. Checked 19 October 2026.
  5. Building an audio-visual corpus of Australian English: large corpus collection with an economical portable and replicable black box isca-archive.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  6. Academy Fellow | Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia socialsciences.org.au. Checked 19 October 2026.
  7. Constraints on Tone Sensitivity in Novel Word Learning by Monolingual and Bilingual Infants: Tone Properties Are More Influential than Tone Familiarity frontiersin.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  8. Cortical tracking of speech across rhythm classes in English-, French-, and Japanese-learning 4- and 8-month-old infants researchers.westernsydney.edu.au. Checked 19 October 2026.