Dimitar Deliyski, MSU Foundation Professor and Chair of the Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders (CSD) at Michigan State University, has been awarded the 2023 William J. Beal Outstanding Faculty award.
The award recognizes individuals who have made distinguished and widely recognized contributions to their fields, significant contributions to MSU and its programs, and who represent the character and qualities of excellence valued at the university.
“My work has always been driven by a desire to make a real-world impact,” Deliyski said. “And receiving this distinction motivates me to push forward new contributions to our field, while continuing to build up our exceptional department here at MSU.”
Deliyski, an international leader in the field of voice and speech disorders, has an extensive publication record and touts award-winning work on laryngeal imaging and voice science.
His research focuses on enhancing the clinical assessments of speech and voice disorders, advancing our understanding of voice production mechanisms, creating new methods for computer imaging of the vocal folds and for acoustic analysis of voice and speech, and improving the methods for speech recognition.
One of Deliyski’s recent studies (with Maryam Naghibolhosseini of CSD, and researchers from Mayo Clinic, University of Cincinatti and East Carolina University) introduced a new way to use computers to analyze high-speed video recordings of the vocal cords of people while speaking. Another study went further, developing an algorithm to provide automated measurements of the vocal folds during running speech. These new methods can be used by researchers worldwide to learn more about how the vocal folds move and work when people are speaking in a natural way. By understanding how the vocal folds work during speech, researchers can gain insight into voice disorders and develop better treatments — particularly for those with conditions like adductor spasmodic dysphonia (AdSD) and other neurogenic voice disorders.
The Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders
Delyski has also found administrative excellence, leading the Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders to university-wide recognition. He accepted the Spiral of Excellence Award on behalf of CSD in the 2022-2023 academic year, which recognizes excellence in research and overall academic practices focused on impactful Communicative Sciences and Disorders research and teaching.
“During the two difficult years of the COVID pandemic, CSD, a small department, added over $20 million dollars of new grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), had very high productivity averaging over four publications per faculty, and has demonstrated leadership in DEI and many other areas of service at MSU and to the professional/scholarly community,” Delisyki said. “And it’s reassuring that the leadership at MSU is tuned in to capture, recognize, and award those who work hard to make a difference for the community in line with our university values.”
CSD is made up of 12 faculty members with the department's research focusing on communication development and rehabilitation, and the underlying basis of speech and language processes. Projects range from studying stuttering, to language in young children with autism, to clinical assessments of voice disorders and structural laryngeal pathologies.
The department offers an undergraduate major and minor, as well as Master’s and Doctoral programs in Communicative Sciences and Disorders for graduate students. The nationally accredited master's program boasts 100% employment rates. Doctoral students pursue careers in the most renowned research and teaching universities.
—Samantha Brichta
Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders