I am an incoming Assistant Professor at UCLA in the Department of Communication. Previously, I was a postdoc at MIT Sloan Marketing. Before then, I received my PhD in Computer Science at Princeton University, advised by Tom Griffiths, with my dissertation receiving the 2024 SfNC dissertation award.

Research Summary

Climate change demands urgent action, yet we still struggle to motivate individuals, communities, and governments to drive real, lasting change. As a computational cognitive scientist, I see a growing need and opportunity for psychological research to shape climate policy and drive meaningful action. At its core, climate change is fundamentally driven by human behavior and I believe psychology can play a vital role in guiding us toward a more sustainable future.

Towards this end, my research combines computational modeling, large-scale behavioral experiments, and real-world field studies to (a) better understand the cognitive underpinnings of climate inaction and (b) design interventions that reduce polarization and mobilize collective climate action.

Research Group

My lab, the Computational Cognitive Policy Lab, will focus on both theoretical questions about human motivation and climate inaction, as well as collaborate with policymakers to bridge divides on climate policy. For more details, check out these slides from a recent talk. I will be recruiting several PhD students in the coming years, so if you're interested, please feel free to reach out. Applicants for the Fall 2025 cycle can apply to the UCLA Communication PhD program and mention my name in the application.

Ideally, my lab will include students of diverse expertise: (1) 1-2 students with background in cognitive science, (2) 1-2 student with climate policy interests (e.g., background in sustainability, policy, economics), and (3) 1-2 students who are fluent in reinforcement learning or machine learning. What will distinguish my lab is that pretty much everyone in it will be interested in human behavior and climate change, and will have strong quantitative training and coding skills. Above all, I hope that all my students are kind and supportive of each other.

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