Skip to main content
Northwestern School of Communication

Bharath Chandrasekaran

(He/him)
Ralph and Jean Sundin Endowed Professor; Department Chair, Communication Sciences and Disorders
Our mission is to explore the neural basis of human communication and plasticity through multimodal neuroimaging, behavioral and computational modeling approaches. Our systems neuroscience focus aims to uncover insights into the brain's plasticity, furthering our understanding of how we learn as humans.

Department

Communication Sciences & Disorders
SoC Administration

Area(s) of Expertise

Auditory Processing, Language Learning and Processing, Neuroscience, Scientific Collaboration
Bharath Chandrasekaran

Dr. Bharath Chandrasekaran is the Ralph and Jean Sundin Professor and Chair of the Roxelyn and Richard Pepper Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Northwestern University. Before joining Northwestern, he served as a Professor and Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. Dr. Chandrasekaran trained as a Speech-Language Pathologist and Audiologist in India before earning his Ph.D. in Integrative Neuroscience from Purdue University in 2008. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Northwestern University before joining the University of Texas at Austin in 2010.

His research program employs a systems neuroscience approach to investigate the computations, maturational constraints, and plasticity underlying auditory signals such as speech and music. Over the past two decades, his lab has utilized cutting-edge behavioral, multimodal neuroimaging, and modeling-based approaches to achieve a computational, algorithmic, and implementation-level understanding of how sounds are represented and mapped to behaviorally relevant constructs in the human brain.

His research is highly collaborative and interdisciplinary, drawing from fields including communication sciences and disorders, neuroscience, linguistics, psychology, engineering, and otolaryngology. Dr. Chandrasekaran's research program is currently supported by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

Education

• Ph.D. in Integrative Neuroscience, Purdue University
• M.S. in Speech Sciences, Purdue University
• Bachelor of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Sri Ramachandra University

Publications

Our Work – SoundBrain Laboratory

Lab Website

SoundBrain Laboratory – Research in the SoundBrain Lab in CSD