Sten Ternström

Together with Claudia Manfredi, I am currently Guest-Editing a Special Issue of Bioengineering, onThe Biophysics of Vocal Onset, 2nd edition. Please visit the publisher's web page if you want to know more!  Deadline for manuscript submissions:30 June 2026.

My research interests center on technical aspects of voice acoustics, especially singing. This includes researching measurements of voice, usually for clinical purposes, and implementing them in practical forms. In particular I am fond of trying to synthesize singing! Lately, my hot topics have been how to address the methodological challenges of the great variability in voices; and analyses of the electroglottogram. The resulting FonaDyn software is a freeware test bench that demonstrates why voice mapping is a good way of assessing vocal status. I also like to stay current with acoustics and sound processing for music and audio. My PhD thesis was on the acoustics of choir singing, and this has been a sporadically recurring theme, especially in my outreach activities.

I have been P.I. in numerous research projects, mostly on the human voice, including Project Coordinator for FP7 Eunison and site coordinator for FP7 SkAT-VG.

I received my MScEE in 1982, PhD in 1989 and became professor in 2003, all at KTH. I am a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America, associate editor with Acta Acustica, and a reviewer for many journals in voice, speech and acoustics.

As of 1 January 2026, I am officially retired, but I will continue to work part time during 2026 as senior professor, with the support of Vetenskapsrådet (Språkbanken Tal and HumInfra).

Keywords: voice acoustics, voice analysis, voice mapping, voice synthesis, choir acoustics, music acoustics, audio signal processing, audio technology, electroglottography.