I'm a postdoctoral researcher working with Eric Schulz (Helmholtz Munich) and Peter Dayan (Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics). Previously, I completed my Ph.D. in Computer and Communication Sciences at EPFL, under the supervision of Wulfram Gerstner. My Ph.D. thesis was recognized by both the Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation Award and the EPFL EDIC Thesis Distinction Award.

My research lies at the intersection of cognitive neuroscience and machine learning. I’m interested in how humans solve complex computational problems in everyday life, and what these strategies reveal about building the next generation of safe, human-aligned AI. To investigate these questions, I combine theoretical and experimental approaches to characterize how different mathematical and psychological constructs—such as surprise, novelty, and the sense of control—shape learning, exploration, and decision-making. My long-term goal is to develop a cohesive framework that explains how these constructs adapt and interact as environments become increasingly complex.

Key Publications:

• An integrative framework for the human sense of control

• Novelty as a drive of human exploration in complex stochastic environments

• Curiosity-driven exploration: foundations in neuroscience and computational modeling 

• Surprise and novelty in the brain 

• A taxonomy of surprise definitions