Curriculum vitae

Experience

Google (2014-present)

Senior User Experience Researcher

  • Built and managed Google Drive's UX research team.
  • Designed and led a global research program supporting the biggest redesign of the mobile Google Maps in years.
  • Drove various company-wide innovations: for example, a rapid A/B testing process that shortened turnaround time of experiments from months to days, a novel method to quantify growth opportunities for new products and features, and a machine learning solution that saved 60% of time while analyzing open-ended survey questions.
  • Worked closely with product managers, designers, and engineers to improve user experience of Google products. Informed significant product decisions affecting hundreds of millions of users by big data logs analysis, surveys, A/B experiments, usability studies, field research in various countries, user interviews, and literature reviews.
  • Presented highly technical information in an easily digestible format to diverse audiences, including VPs and "all-hands" meetings with hundreds of attendees.
  • Received a promotion, 3 Google-wide UX Research Quarterly Awards, a Product Excellence Award, a User Experience Research Product Excellence Pioneer Award, a number of special merit-based bonuses, and a patent application.

European University Institute (2013-2014)

Max Weber Fellow

  • Discovered that much experimental research in economics is biased due to uncontrolled heterogeneity; created statistical models and Monte Carlo simulations in R for this collaborative project.
  • Programmed a tool to automate running online experiments and longitudinal survey studies on Amazon Mechanical Turk using PHP, MySQL, AWS API, and LimeSurvey.
  • Completed a project involving multilevel modeling of survey data from 62 countries.
  • Designed and managed international research projects; analyzed data using statistical models and machine learning algorithms; managed data for a collaborative research project; wrote reports; presented research findings; provided feedback to other researchers.

SalesClark (2010-2013)

Founder

  • Responsible for product management at a tech startup from idea phase to deployment. Developed a virtual assistant before it became cool. The product was a Lifehacker-featured artificial intelligence that communicated in plain English with up to thousands of online shoppers simultaneously to find the best products for their needs.
  • Implemented information retrieval and natural language processing (NLP) algorithms in a cloud environment; integrated data from 10+ APIs and web-scraping into a large MySQL database; designed UX; analyzed logfile data and user insights; conducted A/B tests, contextual inquiry, and usability studies; introduced regular user-centered improvements.

Columbia University (2007-2013)

Researcher

  • Built and managed a team of 3 conducting behavioral experiments, interviews, and surveys in slum neighborhoods in India. Led other field research projects in India, United States, France, and Slovakia.
  • Designed experiments and survey questionnaires; analyzed data using statistical models in R and Stata; wrote research papers; presented findings at international conferences.
  • Received 2 best research paper awards in worldwide competitions and 3 research grants competitive at the university level.

Consultant

  • Helped design a complex experiment evaluating a $100 million security sector reform in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Reduced costs and minimized sources of bias by refocusing client on better matching and sampling techniques.

Instructor for the course Introduction to International Relations

  • Designed a course, got it approved in a competitive process, gave lectures, led seminar discussions, advised students on a one-to-one basis and in small groups about their papers and senior theses, graded exams and assignments.

Teaching Assistant for Professors:

  • Jack Snyder (Nationalism and Contemporary World Politics)
  • Robert Jervis (Theories of International Relations)
  • Alexander Cooley (Globalization and International Politics)
  • Kimberley Marten (International Politics)
  • Johannes Urpelainen (International Cooperation and Institutions)
  • Tanisha Fazal (Senior Honors Seminar)
  • Joseph M. Parent (American Foreign Policy)

Freelance Journalist (1998-2008)

Mostly for Slovakia's nationwide public service radio broadcaster (Slovak Radio) and the newspaper SME.

education

Columbia University

Ph.D. (2013), M.Phil. (2009), and M.A. (2008) in Political Science

  • A quantitative social science doctorate with coursework in statistics, experimental design, survey methods, qualitative research methods, and entrepreneurship. Focus on people's behavior and attitudes.
  • Committee: Jack Snyder (sponsor), Donald Green (chair), Macartan Humphreys, John Huber, Alexandra Scacco.
  • Dissertation: Reciprocity and Prejudice: An Experiment of Hindu-Muslim Cooperation in the Slums of Mumbai.
  • Subfields: International Relations and Comparative Politics.
  • Obtained Faculty Fellowship, Muzzey Fellowship, and Schiff Fellowship.

Graduate Institute of International Studies (HEI)

M.A. (D.E.A.) in International Relations (2006)

  • Selected nationally for one of only two full scholarships. Became the youngest author in history to have a research article published in the top-ranked Journal of Peace Research.

Matej Bel University

B.A. (Magister) in Political Science (2004)

  • Graduated with highest honor (summa cum laude). Valedictorian. Received President's Award for outstanding academic results and research. Received 2 Student Scientific Activity Awards for the best research paper of the year before being asked to join the award committee instead of competing.

publications

Peer-Reviewed Articles in Academic Journals

"Reciprocity and Discrimination: An Experiment of Hindu-Muslim Cooperation in Indian Slums," Political Psychology 38(3): 409-426.

"Security Communities and Their Values: Taking Masses Seriously," International Political Science Review 28(4): 425-449.

"Civilizational Conflicts: More Frequent, Longer, and Bloodier?" Journal of Peace Research 41(4): 485-498.

"Ekonomické hlasovanie na Slovensku: vplyv ekonomických faktorov na volebné výsledky v transformujúcej sa krajine, [Economic Voting in Slovakia: Impact of Economic Factors on Electoral Results in a Country in Transition]," Politologická revue 9(2): 65-79

"Kto získa nílsku vodu? [Who will get the Nile waters?]," Politické vedy 4(3): 192-208.

Chapters in Edited Volumes

"Civilizational Conflicts: More Frequent, Longer, and Bloodier?" in: Brett Bowden (ed.). Civilization Volume IV, Civilizational Relations: Past, Present, and Future. London and New York: Routledge.

"Genocide," in: Lupták, Ľubomír et al. (eds.). Panorama of Global Security Environment: 2006-2007. Bratislava: Ministry of Defence of the Slovak Republic, pp. 569-578.

"Regional Organisations and Their Influence on Security," in: Lupták, Ľubomír et al. (eds.). Panorama of Global Security Environment: 2006-2007. Bratislava: Ministry of Defence of the Slovak Republic, pp. 601-609.

SELECTED conference PRESENTATIONS and invited lectures

  • Google UX University (UXU), Mountain View, CA, USA.
  • Juan March Institute, Madrid, Spain.
  • Alexander Hamilton Center Conference, New York, NY, USA.
  • Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN) World Convention, New York, NY, USA.
  • Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA) Conference, Chicago, IL, USA.
  • NYU-CESS Conference on Experimental Political Science, New York, NY, USA.
  • North American Economic Science Association Conference (ESA), Tucson, AZ, USA.
  • George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
  • NATO Defense College, Rome, Italy.
  • European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) Conference, Budapest, Hungary.
  • First Global International Studies Conference, Istanbul, Turkey.

selected additional training

  • Manager Flagship Program
  • Effective Cross-Functional Collaboration
  • Influence & Teamwork
  • Negotiation Skills for Better Results
  • Building Presentations: Crafting a Persuasive Message
  • Presenting with Charisma
  • Machine Learning with TensorFlow APIs
  • Tableau
  • Qualtrics
  • Go Programming
  • Collecting UI Feedback Remotely
  • Customer Segmentation
  • Experiential Sampling with PACO
  • Introduction to GIS
  • Social Network Analysis
  • Causal Inference Reading Group
  • Video editing
  • Practicing Accessibility Design and Research
  • Reducing Design Fixation
  • Summer Workshop on the Analysis of Military Operations and Strategy (SWAMOS)
  • Executive Training Seminar on Regional Integration
  • IWM International Summer School in Philosophy and Politics
  • Teaching Workshop Series
  • Writing Grant Proposals Workshop

special skills

Languages

  • Proficient in Python, R, SQL & BigQuery.
  • Familiar with PHP, JavaScript, HTML/XML/CSS, Go, MQL4.
  • Fluent in English (94th percentile in GRE verbal skills) and Slovak (native speaker). Good working knowledge of French ("bac S") and Czech. Basic understanding and speaking ability in German, Italian, Polish, Russian, and Spanish. Almost forgotten Hindi and Nepali.

Software

  • Statistical software (R, Stata, SPSS), databases (BigQuery, MySQL), programming (Python), data visualization (Tableau), productivity software (G Suite, Microsoft Office), survey solutions (Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey, LimeSurvey), basic GIS (ArcGIS), bibliographic software (EndNote), experimental software (z-Tree), basic graphics (Adobe Photoshop), basic video editing (Adobe Premiere, QuickTime).

Statistics and Machine Learning

  • Regression and classification (linear, logistic, multilevel modeling, time series, instrumental variables, regression discontinuity, Bayesian additive regression trees, Bayesian classifiers, k-NN, random forest, support vector machines), principal component analysis, social network analysis, rudimentary deep learning and reinforcement learning.