Lab

I will be starting a lab within Boston University’s Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences as an assistant professor in July 2025!

Research in the lab will focus on understanding developmental changes in value-guided learning, memory, and exploration from childhood to early adulthood. We will use behavioral studies, computational modeling, and fMRI to address questions about how and why learning processes change over time and through experience, and what the consequences of those changes are for goal-directed behavior.

These reviews (1, 2, 3) outline some of the ideas that I am excited about, but I also expect the lab’s research will move in new directions, many of which may be shaped by its future members … which could be you! (see below)

Opportunities to join the lab

Postdoctoral researchers

If you have shared research interests and are interested in discussing a potential position (beginning no earlier than fall 2025), please email me.

Ph.D. students

I will be reviewing Ph.D. applications in the upcoming cycle (deadline for psychology: December 1, 2024) for students interested in starting in September 2025.

Prospective students can apply to join the lab through the ‘Brain, Behavior, and Cognition’ program in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences. It may also be possible for students to join the lab through the University-wide ‘Graduate Program in Neuroscience’, though this program begins with a year of rotations.

I expect that entering Ph.D. students will begin their program with strong enthusiasm about conducting developmental studies and working together to build an innovative research agenda for 5 - 6 years. Competitive applicants will likely have:

• experience working in a psychology or neuroscience research lab.
• intrinsic motivation, ambition, creativity, and persistence in tackling difficult intellectual challenges.
• a strong interest in developmental cognitive neuroscience / developmental computational cognitive science, with particular excitement about the lab’s core questions about the development of adaptive learning, memory, and exploration processes (see above, as well as publications).

Feel free to reach out if this sounds like you! I will do my best to answer any questions you may have. Please note that I will review all Ph.D. applications that name me as a mentor of interest carefully, even if you do not email me ahead of time.

Lab manager

I will be hiring a full-time lab manager to start alongside me, in July 2025. The lab manager will be heavily involved in all phases of the research process while also helping to administer the day-to-day functioning of the lab. This position is ideal for a recent college graduate hoping to gain more research experience prior to pursuing a Ph.D. More info to come in fall 2024!