Originally from Egypt, he has studied and worked in the USA since his teenage years. His research interests include studying endangered languages and experimental methods in linguistics as well as computational linguistics, and he has also worked extensively in the fields of motor control of the tongue and hydrostatic skeletons. He was in Bolzano for the recent conference organized by the Associazione Italiana Scienze della Voce (AISV) entitled “Speech on the Natural Context: Models and Methods for the Analysis of Speech under Real Communicative Conditions” where he held a keynote talk and workshop.