Rate My Professor Nicole Li-Jessen

Nicole Li-Jessen is an Associate Professor in the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders at McGill University and holds the Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Personalized Medicine of Upper Airway Health and Diseases. She also serves as Academic Lead for Faculty Development and Engagement in the Office of the Provost and Executive Vice-President (Academic) and is a former Graduate Program Director (2024-2026). She is an associate member of the Departments of Otolaryngology and Biomedical Engineering, a research member of Quantitative Life Sciences and the McGill Regenerative Medicine Network, an associate investigator at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, and a regular member of CAMBAM, CRBLM, and AIRS.

Li-Jessen earned a BSc with honors in Speech and Hearing Sciences and an MPhil in Voice Physiology from the University of Hong Kong, a PhD in Communication Science and Disorders from the University of Pittsburgh, and completed postdoctoral training in Vocal Fold Tissue Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She directs the Voice and Upper Airway Research Laboratory, where her work advances personalized medicine for voice and upper airway disorders through computational modeling, tissue engineering, digital wearables, and point-of-care diagnostics, including development of the VUA Digital Health Twin. Her professional activities include chairing the Widening Participation Committee in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (2018-2024) and serving as associate editor and section editor for PLOS Digital Health as well as on the editorial board of Scientific Reports. Awards and honors include the Research Scholars Senior Award from the Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec (2026), the Canada Research Chair (2021 and previously 2017), the Principal’s Prize for Excellence in Teaching (2018), the Rosemary Wedderburn Brown Prize (2018), a visiting professorship at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (2019), and selection as a delegate to Science Meets Parliament (2021). She is a speech-language pathologist and systems biologist whose research integrates advanced technologies to improve outcomes in voice and upper airway health.