PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Jan Černocký

Also known as Jan Cernocky, Jan “Honza” Černocký

Jan Černocký is a speech researcher whose work applies machine learning and neural networks to speech technologies. He studied radio electronics at Brno University of Technology, completed a Czech-French doctorate defended at Université Paris XI, and took postdoctoral work at Oregon Graduate Institute. BUT Speech@FIT traces its origins to 1997, when he worked at the faculty; he co-founded Phonexia in 2006 and helped organize Interspeech in Brno in 2021, while his team developed a system that searches thousands of recordings for a speaker’s voice. In 2025, FIT VUT hosted Johns Hopkins University’s JSALT workshop; ISCA named him a Fellow in 2026, and the Research, Development and Innovation Council selected him in September 2026 as a candidate for the Czech National Government Award. As of October 2026, he is a professor and department head at Brno University of Technology and leads BUT Speech@FIT.

Now at
Faculty of Information Technology, Brno University of Technology
Born
1970
Works
252
Citations
13,801
h-index
42
Badges

Years link to their sources. Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 1988–1998

    Radio electronics and a doctorate

    He studies radio electronics at FEI VUT in Brno from 1988 to 1993. From 1995 to 1998, he completes a Czech-French co-tutelle doctorate through FEI VUT and ESIEE Paris, defended at Université Paris XI.

  2. 1997–1999

    Speech@FIT takes shape

    The origins of BUT Speech@FIT date to 1997, when he works at Brno's Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. In 1999, his team joins its first large European project on speech databases.

  3. 2001–2002

    Postdoc and institute head

    He completes postdoctoral work at Oregon Graduate Institute's Anthropic Speech Processing Group in 2001. In February 2002, he becomes head of the Institute of Computer Graphics and Multimedia at FIT VUT.

  4. 2006

    Co-founding Phonexia

    In 2006, he co-founds Phonexia with other BUT Speech@FIT researchers. The founders seek an industrial form for their research, with technology that meets industrial standards and runs on standard hardware.

  5. 2021

    A professor and Interspeech organizer

    In 2021, he becomes a professor at FIT VUT and helps organize Interspeech in Brno. His team’s system searches thousands of recordings for one person’s voice.

  6. June–August 2025

    Hosting the JSALT workshop

    From June to August 2025, FIT VUT hosts Johns Hopkins University's JSALT workshop in Brno. The event recognizes the work of BUT Speech@FIT and its head, Jan Černocký.

  7. 2026

    An ISCA fellowship and nomination

    ISCA names him a Fellow in 2026 for sustained leadership and contributions to neural-network-based speech processing. In September 2026, the Research, Development and Innovation Council selects him as a candidate for the National Government Award Česká hlava.

  8. As of October 2026

    Professor and Speech@FIT lead

    As of October 2026, he is a professor of computer science and head of the Department of Computer Graphics and Multimedia at Brno University of Technology, and leads BUT Speech@FIT. The group applies AI and machine learning to speech recognition, speaker and language identification, and keyword spotting, and helps spread neural architectures in speech and language processing.

Career

  1. Since 1997Brno University of TechnologyGroup lead
  2. From 2006PhonexiaFounder
  3. From 2002Faculty of Information Technology, Brno University of TechnologyHead
  4. From 2001Oregon Graduate InstitutePostdoctoral researcher

Education

  1. 1998Brno University of TechnologyDoctorate
  2. 1998ESIEE ParisDoctorate
  3. 1998Université Paris-SudDoctorate
  4. 1993Brno University of TechnologyRadio electronics

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

Most-cited works

  1. Recurrent neural network based language model2010 · Interspeech (USB) · 5,388 citationsWith Sanjeev Khudanpur and Tomas Mikolov
  2. Extensions of recurrent neural network language model2011 · IEEE International Conference on Acoustics Speech and Signal Processing · 1,594 citationsWith Sanjeev Khudanpur and Tomas Mikolov
  3. Strategies for training large scale neural network language models2011 · IEEE Workshop on Automatic Speech Recognition and Understanding (ASRU) · 514 citationsWith Daniel Povey and Tomas Mikolov
  4. Probabilistic and Bottle-Neck Features for LVCSR of Meetings2007 · IEEE International Conference on Acoustics Speech and Signal Processing · 340 citations
  5. Empirical evaluation and combination of advanced language modeling techniques2011 · Interspeech (USB) · 278 citationsWith Tomas Mikolov

From OpenAlex, as of 21 October 2026.

  1. 11% of AI doctorate holders from 2010 to 2016 founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduationIncludes Jan Černocký. We estimate how often AI doctorate holders founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduation, how waiting times compare between founders and top jobs, and which universities trained the most.
  2. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes Brno University of Technology. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  3. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes Brno University of Technology. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.
  4. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes Brno University of Technology. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, recent citations, dual appointments and job moves across 2,420 university researchers and 308 frontier-lab researchers.

Colleagues

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

Sources and credits

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  1. prof. Dr. Ing. Jan Černocký - Životopis – VUT vut.cz. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Česko světovou velmocí výzkumu AI. Dokazuje to mezinárodní workshop JSALT 2025 na FIT VUT fit.vut.cz. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. Někdejší spin-off FIT VUT mění majitele: Phonexia součástí portfolia jihokorejského fondu - Aktuality – VUT vut.cz. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. doc. Dr. Ing. Jan Černocký - Brno brno.cz. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. New FIT professor Jan Černocký appointed by the President fit.vut.cz. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. FEKT VUT - Aktualita-Prezident jmenoval čtyři nové profesory z VUT, dva z nich jsou z FEKTu fekt.vut.cz. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. ISCA - ISCA Fellows 2026: congratulations! isca-speech.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. Research, Development and Innovation Council Nominates Jan Černocký of BUT’s Faculty of Information Technology for the National Government Award Česká hlava fit.vut.cz. Checked 21 October 2026.
  9. BUT Speech@FIT speech.fit.vut.cz. Checked 21 October 2026.