Eric J. Hunter Ph.D.

Eric Hunter

Associate Dean for Research, Director Trifecta Initiative for Interdisciplinary Health Research, MSU Foundation Professor

Department
  • Communicative Sciences & Disorders
ejhunter@msu.edu
(517) 884-6778

Bio

At Michigan State University, Eric Hunter currently serves as the Associate Dean for Research in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences, with a home appointment of professor in the Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders.  He is also the Director of the Trifecta Initiative for Interdisciplinary Health Research (a joint research initiative of the College of Engineering, College of Nursing, and the College of Communication Arts & Sciences). For the last 20 years, Dr. Hunter's NIH-supported research has focused on occupational voice use, particularly examining voice disorders in elementary and secondary school teachers. 

In addition to occupational voice use, Hunter’s research interests also include signal processing, biomechanics of speech articulators and biomechanical models of the vocal system, and muscle mechanics and muscle models. Broader academic interests include recording techniques, speech perception, musical acoustics and machine recognition of speech. Dr. Hunter has published more than 115 publications and book chapters and has been a part of more than 250 presentations. His expertise on the vocal health of teachers and the aging voice has been consulted in newspaper and television interviews across the United States and Asia, including The New York Times and MSNBC.

Dr. Hunter earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Physics and Mathematics from Brigham Young University, with an emphasis in acoustics and vibration. His master’s thesis, which focused on designing and testing computer-generated visual aids, shifted his interest from general acoustics to speech acoustics. He completed his training in the area of speech science and received his doctorate from the University of Iowa. His dissertation topic used continuum mechanics to model vocal fold posturing.

He loves his role as husband to an incredible wife and teller of dad jokes to his three teenage children.

 

Roles

Associate Dean for Research
Director Trifecta Initiative for Interdisciplinary Health Research
MSU Foundation Professor

Research and Teaching

Voice Disorders, Occupational Voice Risks, Biomechanical Modeling, Research Recording Techniques

 
Thematic Research Areas

Computational Communication
Neurocognitive Communication

Research Centers and Labs

Voice Biomechanics and Acoustics Laboratory
Health and Risk Communication Center

Recent Publications

Hunter EJ, Berardi M, and van Mersbergen M. (2021epub). Relationship of vocal effort rating and measures of vocal intensity. J. Sp. Lang. Hear. Res. 64(6):1829-1840. doi: 10.1044/2021_JSLHR-20-00465

Hunter EJ, Cantor-Cutiva LC, van Leer E, et al. Toward a Consensus Description of Vocal Effort, Vocal Load, Vocal Loading, and Vocal Fatigue. J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2020;63(2):509-532. doi:10.1044/2019_JSLHR-19-00057

Dsouza H, Van Schyndel A, Pastrana J, et al. Ferroelectret nanogenerators for loudspeaker applications: A comprehensive study. Journal of Sound and Vibration. 2020;468(115091). doi:10.1016/j.jsv.2019.115091

Hunter EJ, Maxfield L, Graetzer S. The Effect of Pulmonary Function on the Incidence of Vocal Fatigue Among Teachers. Journal of Voice. January 2019. doi:10.1016/j.jvoice.2018.12.011

Rakerd B, Hunter EJ, LaPine P. Resonance Effects and the Vocalization of Speech. Perspect ASHA SIGs. 2019;4(6):1637-1643. doi:10.1044/2019_PERS-19-00052

Rollins MK, Leishman TW, Whiting JK, Hunter EJ, Eggett DL. Effects of added absorption on the vocal exertions of talkers in a reverberant room. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 2019;145(2):775-783. doi:10.1121/1.5089891

Contact Information

404 Wilson Rd, Room 291
Communication Arts and Sciences Building
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
https://comartsci.msu.edu/v-bal-lab 
https://researchejhunter.wordpress.com/
Twitter: @EricJHunter

Public Profiles:
ORCiD, ResearchGate, Google Scholar, NIH PubMed