Haoyu (Nina) Zhou
PhD candidate
My fascination with infants’ rapid and effortless language acquisition abilities ignited during my undergraduate linguistics studies. I was lucky to have pursued this interest further, earning a Master's degree in Applied Linguistics (University of Oxford) under Elizabeth Wonnacott's mentorship, where I explored the concept of statistical learning in word acquisition. Currently, as a Ph.D. student in Bogaertslab, my research focuses on investigating the use of statistical learning in individual readers, particularly how varying sensitivities to orthographic regularities can impact their reading performance.
Aside from my academic interest in reading and language learning, I enjoy these activities as hobbies, as well as dancing and painting clouds and plants.
Haoyu about Liesa
Liesa excels at organizing and scheduling timely events, including but not limited to lab meetings and EEG sessions. She is also our in-house statistics guru, making her my go-to for quick analysis and coding questions. As a true Ghentian and native Dutch speaker, Liesa has taught me many useful survival phrases (e.g., “pintjes?”), which has made my life in Ghent comfortable and allows me to get a “broodje” every Thursday at lunch seminars.