PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Heiga Zen

Also known as Zen Heiga

As of October 2026, Heiga Zen is a Principal Scientist and Tokyo site lead at Google DeepMind, where he leads teams in spoken language processing, natural language processing, gaming and large language models. He earned a PhD from the Nagoya Institute of Technology in 2006, and he worked as a research engineer at Toshiba Research Europe's Cambridge laboratory from 2008 to 2011. Among his work is HTS, the HMM-based speech synthesis system, where he was one of the original authors and the first maintainer. He joined Google's Speech team in 2011, and he co-authored WaveNet, a network for generating raw audio waveforms. ISCA named him a Fellow in 2022, and the IEEE named him a Fellow in 2025.

Works
192

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 15 October 2026. Citations and h-index are hidden because this OpenAlex record may be incomplete or mix in other authors.

Timeline

  1. 1999–2006

    Studies in Suzuka and Nagoya

    At Suzuka National College of Technology he receives an AE in 1999, and at the Nagoya Institute of Technology he receives a PhD in 2006.

  2. 2008–2011

    Toshiba research in Cambridge

    He takes a research engineer post at Toshiba Research Europe's Cambridge laboratory from 2008 to 2011. Among his work is HTS, the HMM-based speech synthesis system, where he is one of the original authors and the first maintainer.

  3. 2011–2018

    Speech team and WaveNet

    In 2011 he joins Google's Speech team, where he stays until 2018. He co-authors WaveNet, a network for generating raw audio waveforms.

  4. 2018

    A Google Brain team in Tokyo

    In 2018 he joins the Brain team, and he is a co-founding member of the Google Brain team in Tokyo.

  5. 2022–2025

    ISCA and IEEE Fellowships

    ISCA makes him a Fellow in 2022, and the IEEE does the same in 2025.

  6. June 2023

    Principal Scientist at Google DeepMind

    From June 2023, he is a Principal Scientist at Google DeepMind, Japan.

  7. As of October 2026

    Tokyo site lead

    He is a Principal Scientist and Tokyo site lead at Google DeepMind. He leads teams in spoken language processing, natural language processing, gaming and large language models. He also gives an ICML 2026 talk on the historical progression of speech generation.

Sources and credits

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  1. Heiga Zen – 2025 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing 2025.ieeeicassp.org. Checked 15 October 2026.
  2. Heiga Zen research.google. Checked 15 October 2026.
  3. [1609.03499] WaveNet: A Generative Model for Raw Audio arxiv.org. Checked 15 October 2026.
  4. WaveNet: A Generative Model for Raw Audio research.google. Checked 15 October 2026.
  5. ICML Heiga Zen: From Statistical Models to Foundation Capabilities: The Historical Progression of Speech Generation icml.cc. Checked 15 October 2026.