PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Tara Sainath

Also known as Tara N. Sainath

Tara Sainath is a Google DeepMind researcher whose work applies deep neural networks to automatic speech recognition. After her 2009 MIT doctorate, she spends five years at IBM's Watson Research Center before joining Google Research. Her 2017 Interspeech paper describes the multichannel speech system that Google Home launched in November 2016. Her honours include ISCA and IEEE fellowships, a 2021 IEEE Signal Processing Society Industrial Innovation Award, and two Signal Processing Society best paper awards. As of October 2026 she is a Distinguished Research Scientist and co-lead of the Gemini Audio Pillar at Google DeepMind.

Works
242
Citations
31,224
h-index
65

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 14 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2005–2009

    A PhD from MIT

    She earns degrees in electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, including a master's degree in 2005 and a PhD in 2009.

  2. 2009

    Five years at IBM Research

    After her 2009 PhD, she spends five years in the speech and language algorithms group at IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center, before joining Google Research.

  3. 2017

    Acoustic modeling for Google Home

    At Google Research she co-authors “Acoustic Modeling for Google Home” for Interspeech 2017, a paper on the multichannel system that Google Home launched in November 2016. She also serves as ICLR program chair for 2017 and 2018.

  4. 2021

    An industrial innovation award

    The IEEE Signal Processing Society gives her its 2021 Industrial Innovation Award.

  5. 2022

    ISCA and IEEE fellowships

    In 2022 she is elected an IEEE Fellow and an ISCA Fellow, both for contributions to deep learning for automatic speech recognition.

  6. 2022

    A magazine best paper award

    The Society's magazine best paper award for 2022 goes to “Deep Neural Networks for Acoustic Modeling in Speech Recognition: The Shared Views of Four Research Groups,” co-written with Geoffrey Hinton and others.

  7. 2024

    Best paper on audio deep learning

    A 2024 best paper award from the same society goes to “Deep Learning for Audio Signal Processing,” written with Hendrik Purwins, Bo Li, Tuomas Virtanen, Jan Schlüter and Shuo-Yiin Chang.

  8. As of October 2026

    Co-lead of Gemini Audio

    In 2025 she works at Google DeepMind, where she is a Distinguished Research Scientist and co-lead of the Gemini Audio Pillar.

Sources and credits

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  1. Tara Sainath - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  2. Tara N. Sainath research.google. Checked 14 October 2026.
  3. ISCA Archive - Acoustic Modeling for Google Home isca-archive.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  4. Acoustic Modeling for Google Home research.google. Checked 14 October 2026.
  5. ISCA - ISCA Fellow Program isca-speech.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  6. 2022 IEEE Signal Processing Society Awards to be Presented in Greece | IEEE Signal Processing Society signalprocessingsociety.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  7. Audio AI research awarded the best paper award | Tampere University tuni.fi. Checked 14 October 2026.
  8. 2024 IEEE Signal Processing Society Awards Presented in India! | IEEE Signal Processing Society signalprocessingsociety.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  9. Tara Sainath sites.google.com. Checked 14 October 2026.