Philip Rubin

Philip E. Rubin (born May 22, 1949) is an American cognitive scientist, technologist, and science administrator known for raising the visibility of behavioral and cognitive science, neuroscience, and ethical issues related to science, technology, and medicine, at a national level.
His research career is noted for his theoretical contributions and pioneering technological developments, starting in the 1970s, related to speech synthesis and speech production, including articulatory synthesis (computational modeling of the physiology and acoustics of speech production) and sinewave synthesis, and their use in studying complex temporal events, particularly understanding the biological bases of speech and language.

He is the Chief Executive Officer emeritus and a member of the Board of Directors of Haskins Laboratories in New Haven, Connecticut, where he was also a senior scientist. In addition, he is a Professor Adjunct in the Department of Surgery, Otolaryngology at the Yale University School of Medicine, a Research Affiliate in the Department of Psychology at Yale University, a Fellow at Yale's Trumbull College,
and a Trustee of the University of Connecticut.
He is also President of the Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences (FABBS).

From 2012 through Feb. 2015 he was the Principal Assistant Director for Science at the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) in the Executive Office of the President of the United States, and led the White House's neuroscience initiative, which included the BRAIN Initiative. He also served as the Assistant Director for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences at OSTP. For many years he has been involved with issues of science advocacy, education, funding, and policy.

Education

Philip Rubin received his BA in psychology and linguistics in 1971 from Brandeis University and subsequently attended the University of Connecticut where he received his PhD in experimental psychology in 1975 under the tutelage of Michael Turvey, Ignatius Mattingly, Philip Lieberman, and Alvin Liberman.

Career

Philip Rubin's research spans a number of disciplines, combining computational, engineering, linguistic, physiological, and psychological approaches to study embodied cognition, most particularly the biological bases of speech and language. He is best known for his work on articulatory synthesis (computational modeling of the physiology and acoustics of speech production), speech perception, sinewave synthesis, signal processing, perceptual organization, and theoretical approaches and modeling of complex temporal events. At the same time, he has been involved in leadership roles related to science administration, policy, and advocacy.

Speech Synthesis and Speech Production

Starting in the early 1970s, Rubin worked on foundational issues in speech technology.
These include: participating with Rod McGuire on Haskins aspects of the ARPANET Network Voice Protocol, a predecessor of Voice over IP;
collaborating with Leonard Szubowicz, Douglas Whalen, and others on digitized speech, particularly extensions of the Haskins Pulse-code modulation (PCM) implementation,
focusing on expanding temporal markers and event labels; and working with Patrick Nye on the Digital Pattern Playback, which was eventually replaced by Rubin's HADES system.

During his time at Haskins Laboratories, Rubin was responsible for the design of many computational models and other software systems. Most prominent are ASY, the Haskins articulatory synthesis program,
and SWS, the Haskins sinewave synthesis program, both developed in the 1970s.

ASY expanded the Mermelstein vocal-tract model developed at Bell Laboratories, adding additional articulatory control, simulation of nasal sounds, sound generation, and digital sound production.
Most importantly, Rubin designed and implemented an approach for describing and controlling articulatory events, now known as speech gestures.
In addition to use in standard articulatory synthesis, the ASY program has been used as part of a gestural-computational model that combines articulatory phonology, task dynamics, and articulatory synthesis. With Louis Goldstein