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, advised by Wulfram Gerstner. My Ph.D. thesis was recognized by both the EPFL Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation Award and the EDIC Thesis Distinction Award.

My research sits 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 constructs like 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, interact, and take on different roles as environments grow more 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