Have you ever wondered why some women were “blessed” with that sexy, raspy voice? Or does it sound bizarre that bird traits parallel personality traits found in any professional faculty members?

Two lectures, “Vocal Fatigue in Women” and “For the Birds: A Faculty Guide to Species of Committee Members”, will open Thursday as NIU’s College of Professional Studies presents its “Research at Noon” series, held in the fireside room of Adams Hall.

The series are programs, coordinated by the College of Professional Studies, that give researchers a chance to share their discoveries with an interested audience, in an attempt to further educate people of all departments on campus.

The “Research at Noon” programs have been held for three years, averaging about two programs a semester.

Kelly Hall, assistant professor at the department of communicative disorders, will give the lecture titled “Vocal Fatigue in Women”.

This thesis won Hall a graduate school Summer Research and Artistry Award that allowed her time to further research vocal fatigue.

Vocal fatigue is not a phenomenon everyone experiences. It occurs when the vocal chords are strained so severely as to cause the formation of vocal nodules on the vocal chords.

“Vocal fatigue is a very individual thing,” Hall said. “For example, some people can scream for hours at a football game and be fine, whereas others can scream for five minutes and get nodules.”

Vocal fatigue predominantly affects women. Hall’s research has been devoted mainly toward answering the questions of who is experiencing this, what predisposing factors can be used to identify those at risk, and at what point can these nodules become cancerous.

“I hope to make the audience aware of vocal fatigue and some of the factors that cause it and for women to develop more of an interest and awareness of vocal nodules as disorders,” Hall said.

Carol Wilson, associate professor in the school of nursing, will be giving a lecture that will humorously attribute bird traits to personality traits seen in committee meetings in workplaces.

Her article, “For the Birds”, was recently published in a recent issue of “Nurse Educator”. Wilson said her article is geared mainly toward the novice faculty member.

Wilson has correlated certain birds with behavior to be avoided and behavior to be emulated.

The birds that represent negative characteristics have been defined by Wilson as: the warbler, dodo, albatross, ostrich, kiwi and peacock.

Positive qualities have been characterized by: the owl, hummingbird, woodpecker, eagle, robin and dove.

Wilson has given lectures before at the “Research at Noon” programs on other matters of importance on which she has done research.

“I hope to help faculty to recognize various personalities in committees, and to help increase committee productivity and have a little fun doing it,” she said.

The lectures are open to anyone who wishes to attend.