PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Douglas O'Shaughnessy

Also known as O'Shaughnessy Douglas

Douglas O'Shaughnessy is a speech researcher whose work includes automatic speech recognition, speech synthesis, and voice interaction with computers. At MIT, he explored AI before choosing speech as an application area in 1971; he earned a doctorate there in 1976 and became a professor at INRS in 1977. He coauthored books on speech communication and processing, chaired ICASSP in 2004, and became an IEEE Fellow in 2006. He served as ISCA Secretary and chair of the IEEE Speech and Language Processing Technical Committee, and held a Member-at-Large seat on the IEEE Signal Processing Society Board of Governors. As of October 2026, he is a professor of speech processing at INRS.

Timeline

  1. 1971

    A speech focus at MIT

    At the end of his undergraduate study at MIT in 1971, he chooses speech as an application area for electrical engineering after exploring artificial intelligence.

  2. 1976–1977

    An MIT doctorate and INRS role

    He completes a PhD at MIT in 1976 and becomes a professor at INRS in 1977, while also serving as an adjunct professor at McGill University.

  3. 1986–1992

    A speech textbook and an honor

    In 1986, he publishes Speech Communications: Human and Machine and becomes a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America in 1992.

  4. 2000–2003

    Books and speech interfaces

    He publishes a completely revised IEEE Press edition of Speech Communications: Human and Machine in 2000. With Li Deng, he coauthors Speech Processing: A Dynamic and Optimization-Oriented Approach in 2003 and publishes the Proceedings of the IEEE paper “Interacting with computers by voice: Automatic speech recognition and synthesis.”

  5. 2004–2006

    ICASSP chair and IEEE Fellow

    In 2004, he serves as General Chair of ICASSP in Montreal. In 2006, he becomes an IEEE Fellow for contributions to education in speech processing and communication.

  6. 2013–2014

    Speech committee leadership

    In April 2013, he serves as ISCA Secretary and oversees the association's board election process. In 2014, he chairs the IEEE Speech and Language Processing Technical Committee.

  7. 2019–2021

    IEEE Signal Processing board seat

    From 2019 to 2021, he serves as a Member-at-Large on the IEEE Signal Processing Society Board of Governors.

  8. As of October 2026

    Professor of speech processing

    As of October 2026, he is a professor of speech processing at INRS. His current project aims to improve automatic speech recognition robustness through adaptation.

  1. 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.
  2. The United States employs an estimated 53% of people in our data with a known employment countryOur estimates of where AI careers are concentrated now and how countries’ shares of dated positions changed over time.
  3. 47% of living people in our data with known birth and employment countries work outside their birth countryOur estimate of cross-border careers in AI, from country of birth and the country of each current organization.
  4. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionOur estimates of where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led, from education records in cited biographies.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Douglas O'Shaughnessy yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Getting to Know Your Fellow Researchers: Douglas O'Shaughnessy | IEEE Signal Processing Society signalprocessingsociety.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  2. IEEE Computational Intelligence Society meetings ewh.ieee.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  3. Douglas O'Shaughnessy | INRS inrs.ca. Checked 19 October 2026.
  4. IEEE Canada awards / prix ewh.ieee.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  5. ISCA Services services.isca-speech.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  6. Speech and Language Processing Technical Committee Newsletter signalprocessingsociety.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  7. IEEE SPS 2018 Members-at-Large and Regional Directors-at-Large Election Results signalprocessingsociety.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  8. Douglas O'Shaughnessy | Professeur | Traitement de la parole | INRS inrs.ca. Checked 19 October 2026.