We are proud to announce that Prof. Elena Lieven, a founding member of LuCiD, has been awarded the prestigious Roger Brown Award at the International Association for the Study of Child Language (IASCL) conference, held in Prague in July 2024. This award recognises outstanding researchers and leaders in the field of child language and was established in honour of Roger W. Brown, a pioneering figure in developmental psycholinguistics.
Prof. Lieven has made significant contributions to the study of language development throughout her career. She has been instrumental in advancing a usage-based theory of language learning, and her work has provided invaluable insights into how children acquire lexical and grammatical knowledge. As a member of the University of Manchester faculty and a senior research scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, she has led innovative studies that have shaped our understanding of the interplay between linguistic input, cultural practices, and individual differences in language acquisition.
Her leadership roles as past President of the IASCL (2008-2011), Chair of its Board of Trustees (2011-2014), and former Editor of the Journal of Child Language (1996-2005) have further solidified her influence on the field. Prof. Lieven’s dedication to open science has also led to the creation of rich longitudinal corpora for the CHILDES database, which are freely accessible to researchers worldwide.
Prof. Lieven was a driving force behind the launch of LuCiD, which continues to lead pioneering cross-linguistic research in child language development, with a view to improving early years interventions. Her election as a Fellow of the British Academy, the Cognitive Science Society, and Academia Europaea are a testament to her impact on the international stage.
Prof. Lieven’s work continues to inspire and shape the future of child language research, making her a well-deserving recipient of the Roger Brown Award.
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LuCiD
The ESRC International Centre for Language and Communicative Development (LuCiD) is a five year research collaboration working with partners from across the world to transform our understanding of how children learn to communicate with language.