İsmail Koçak
Prof. Dr. İsmail Koçak, MD, MSc (Biomedical Engineering) is an otolaryngologist–head & neck surgeon with a clinical and academic focus on laryngology, phonosurgery, and professional voice care, integrating surgical innovation with voice science. He has been working in the field of voice since 1993, with a particular interest in tissue-preserving microlaryngeal surgery, esthetic/identity-related voice surgery, and objective outcome assessment.
He received his MD from Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine (1992), completed ENT residency at Ankara University (1996), and earned an MSc in Biomedical Engineering from Boğaziçi University (2002) with a thesis on laryngeal resonance modeling and surgical optimization of voice quality. His specialty thesis addressed implant design for unilateral vocal fold paralysis. He was appointed Associate Professor (2010) and later Professor and Department Chair (2016–2019).
Prof. Koçak has contributed to the development and clinical dissemination of several techniques in esthetic voice surgery and phonosurgery, including approaches for pitch and timbre modulation and tissue-preservation strategies in microlaryngeal interventions. His clinical practice encompasses voice feminization/masculinization, pitch-range modulation, thyroplasty, complex revision voice cases, and management of organic laryngeal pathology, including laryngeal masses and oncology-related voice rehabilitation, as well as treatment of spasmodic dysphonia.
His research output includes publications in international peer-reviewed journals, notably on novel surgical techniques and imaging/diagnostic features in phonosurgery (e.g., Journal of Voice), and interdisciplinary work bridging signal processing, imaging, and machine learning with laryngology. He has supervised doctoral research in voice therapy and vocal training and led funded academic work including the “Acoustic Body Project” (TÜBİTAK, 2015–2018).
He is a frequent invited speaker and panelist at major international meetings, including the American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery (international sessions on challenging laryngology cases and esthetic voice surgery) and European laryngology platforms. He is a member of professional societies including the European Laryngological Society and the Acoustical Society of America. Prof. Koçak is based in Istanbul, where he practices and teaches in the field of voice surgery and vocology.
Sessions
Voice Aesthetics – A New Perspective in Laryngology
Voice aesthetics is an emerging field that goes far beyond the treatment of voice disorders. It explores how voice shapes identity, relational roles, social integration, professional performance, and personal well-being.
This lecture will introduce the concept of emerging vocal archetypes and their perceptual effects on both the speaker and the listener. The relationship between voice, emotion, intention, and relational communication will be discussed together with practical methods for aesthetic voice assessment.
The second part of the lecture will focus on advanced and adjustable surgical techniques that allow individualized voice optimization while preserving natural vocal function. Clinical examples will demonstrate how these procedures can be successfully applied not only in patients with voice disorders but also in healthy individuals, including professional voice users seeking greater vocal flexibility, authenticity, and performance.
Voice aesthetics represents a shift from restoring the diseased voice to optimizing the human voice according to the individual's identity, expectations, and social roles.
Management of voice-related gender dysphoria will be discussed