Michael A Osborne is Professor of Machine Learning at the University of Oxford and leads the Bayesian Exploration Lab . He serves as Director of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Autonomous Intelligent Machines and Systems and co-directs the Oxford Martin AI Governance Initiative. His research focuses on Bayesian optimization, Gaussian processes, and probabilistic numerics with applications in quantum devices, battery modeling, and AI governance. Key Positions: Professor of Machine Learning, University of Oxford Official Fellow, Exeter College Co-founder of Mind Foundry Lead Researcher, Oxford Martin Programme on Technology and Employment Research Themes: Probabilistic modeling for quantum systems Uncertainty quantification in energy storage AI safety and societal impact analysis Automated experimental design Quantum device calibration Probabilistic numerical methods Technical Contributions: Bridging reality gap in quantum devices Efficient Bayesian quadrature techniques Personalized neurostimulation algorithms Automated measurement protocols Quantum-classical hybrid ML
Shanique Brown serves as Assistant Professor of Management at the Zicklin School of Business, City University of New York (CUNY), where she investigates cognitive processes impacting organizational team dynamics and decision-making. Her research bridges industrial-organizational psychology with practical applications in extreme environments. Her academic foundation includes: Ph.D. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from DePaul University M.A. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville B.Sc. in Psychology from the University of the West Indies Dr. Brown's research centers on decision-making mechanisms and team cognition within organizational contexts, with specialized focus on extreme environments like space missions. She examines how cognitive styles, working memory, and team composition influence performance in isolated, confined, and high-stakes settings. Her work integrates psychological theory with actionable frameworks for optimizing team effectiveness across virtual and physical workspaces. Analysis of her publication history reveals evolving expertise in team science, particularly regarding virtual team leadership, polycultural organizations, and NASA-relevant analog research. Recent work emphasizes selection-optimization-compensation models for team performance and psychosocial factors in extreme environments, demonstrating consistent contribution to organizational psychology literature. Her scientific recognition includes: Editorial Fellowship from Group Dynamics (2022) Wayne State University Faculty Accessibility Fellowship (2022) Teaching Innovation Development Excellence Award (2020) Faculty Teaching Award (2020) University Research Grant (2019) Robert A. Daugherty Memorial Award (2011) Dr. Brown actively collaborates on NASA-funded research through the Human Research Program, developing crew composition models for long-duration space missions. She serves on Baruch College's PhD Admissions and Interdisciplinary Business Major committees while maintaining leadership roles in the Society of Industrial-Organizational Psychology, including Task Force Chair and Conference Committee positions. Her grant work focuses on translating team dynamics research into operational frameworks for extreme environments. She leads interdisciplinary collaborations with NASA researchers and international scholars on projects including virtual escape room studies for team performance assessment and CREWS (Crew Recommender for Effective Work in Space) development, demonstrating commitment to solving real-world team challenges in high-consequence settings.
Terry C. Lansdown is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Sciences and Department of Psychology at Heriot-Watt University. His expertise lies in Human Factors, particularly focusing on driver safety, workload management, and attentional distraction in transportation contexts. Prior to his academic role, he worked as a senior researcher at the Transport Research Laboratory, contributing to numerous EU-funded and government-sponsored projects. His research integrates ergonomics principles with real-world applications, addressing issues like automated driving systems, social distractions in vehicles, and occupational health in construction industries. Key research interests include: Driver behavior and road safety Human factors in automated systems Workload and attentional demands in complex tasks Health and safety in small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) He has led studies on pandemic response strategies, such as the CHARIS project analyzing behavioral adherence during the COVID-19 crisis. Lansdown’s work frequently bridges psychological theory with practical interventions, including text messaging campaigns to improve construction worker safety and experimental designs to evaluate automation failure responses. Collaborations span academic and industrial sectors, with publications addressing topics ranging from UV exposure in outdoor workers to the cognitive impacts of in-vehicle distractions. His contributions align with UN Sustainable Development Goals related to health (SDG 3) and sustainable cities (SDG 11).
John P. O'Doherty serves as the Fletcher Jones Professor of Decision Neuroscience within Caltech's Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, holding continuous faculty appointments since 2004 (Assistant Professor 2004-07, Associate Professor 2007-09, Professor 2009-present, Fletcher Jones Professor 2021-present). He previously directed the Caltech Brain Imaging Center (2013-17) and maintains affiliations with the T&C Chen Center for Social and Decision Neuroscience. His educational background includes a B.A. from University of Dublin, Trinity College (1996) and D.Phil. from University of Oxford (2000). His research focuses on computational and neural mechanisms of reward-based learning and decision-making , employing fMRI, intracranial recordings, and mathematical modeling to investigate how the brain solves complex decision problems through evolutionarily conserved algorithms. Key areas include Reinforcement learning systems (model-based/model-free arbitration) Observational and social learning mechanisms Neural representation of value, risk, and uncertainty Computational phenotyping of mental disorders Temporal dynamics of goal persistence Analysis of his 2023-2025 publications reveals dominant trends in computational psychiatry (problem gambling, autism traits), hierarchical decision-making, and neuroeconomic modeling of social behavior. His work consistently integrates cross-species computational frameworks with human neuroimaging to identify transdiagnostic mechanisms. While specific awards beyond his endowed professorship aren't detailed, his leadership as Brain Imaging Center Director and prolific high-impact publications demonstrate significant recognition. Current advising includes graduate researcher Sneha Aenugu on goal-persistence projects, with administrative support from Mary A. Martin (mmartin@caltech.edu). His active research program continues to pioneer computational approaches to understanding decision pathologies.
Jeff Moher is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Co-Chair of the Department of Psychology at Connecticut College, where he has been teaching since 2017. He also serves as the Data, Information, and Society Pathway Co-Coordinator, demonstrating his leadership within the institution. His educational background includes a Ph.D. and M.A. from Johns Hopkins University and a B.S. from the University of Michigan. This strong academic foundation has prepared him for his research and teaching career in cognitive psychology. Moher's research focuses on cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience, particularly visual attention and cognition in action. His work investigates why distractions occur, when they are likely to arise, and what mechanisms humans can harness to avoid them. He has found that humans employ various cognitive mechanisms to minimize distractions based on explicit knowledge, task goals, object properties, and recent experience, though he has also discovered surprising limitations in attentional selection. His research is particularly relevant given that over 3,000 people are killed annually in the United States from distracted driving. His recent publications show a consistent trajectory examining attentional mechanisms, distraction, and visual processing across different contexts. His work frequently employs sophisticated methodologies to measure both cognitive and motor responses to distractions, revealing how seemingly minor distractions can accumulate to induce serious performance costs. Moher's research is currently funded by grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, indicating the significance and quality of his work. He likely mentors numerous students through the department's research groups, contributing to their development as researchers. He directs the CAMELab (Center for Attention, Movement, and Embodied Learning), which utilizes multiple methodologies including eye-tracking, electroencephalography, three-dimensional reach-tracking, and psychophysics to approach questions about attention and distraction. Current projects in his lab explore why salient distractors cause people to give up quickly during visual search, the brain mechanisms involved in learning to ignore distractions, how internal distractions impact physical interactions with the world, and how hand movement paths reveal information about attentional processes.
Bertrand Schneider is an Associate Professor of Education at Harvard University's Graduate School of Education (GSE). He holds a Ph.D. in Learning Sciences and Technology Design from Stanford University (2015) and previously served as a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford's Transformative Learning Technologies Laboratory. His research focuses on educational interfaces (e.g., augmented reality, tangible tools) and multimodal learning analytics, particularly in collaborative and informal learning environments. He investigates how technologies like gaze-tracking and motion sensors can assess student learning trajectories and improve instructional strategies in makerspaces and remote teaching contexts. Education : Ph.D., Learning Sciences and Technology Design, Stanford University (2015) Postdoctoral Researcher, Transformative Learning Technologies Laboratory, Stanford University Research Interests : Educational technologies (AR, tangible interfaces, multitouch) Multimodal data analysis (gaze, body movement, speech) Collaborative learning in formal/informal settings Remote teaching strategies using shared gaze visualizations AI applications in personalized feedback and misinformation discernment Key Contributions : Developed methodologies for capturing joint visual attention in collaborative learning Advocated for ethical implementation of multimodal learning analytics Explored AR's dual-edged impact on student engagement and collaboration Labs/Teams : Current research aligns with GSE's focus on innovative learning technologies Prior affiliation with Stanford's Transformative Learning Technologies Lab
Lotte van Dillen is a Professor of Social Cognition and Decision Making at Leiden University's Social, Economic and Organisational Psychology department under the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences. She also serves as researcher at the Knowledge Center for Psychology and Economic Behavior (KCPEG) and member of the Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC). As Director of Research, she is part of the Psychology Institute's executive board. Her work focuses on how affect influences decision-making across health, legal, and financial contexts, emphasizing limited mental capacity's role in perception and behavior. Education: Master's degrees in Social Psychology and Cognitive Psychology (cum laude), University of Amsterdam (2004) PhD in Psychology from VU University Amsterdam (2008, cum laude) Postdoctoral research at Utrecht University and New York University Research Interests: Examines interactions between affect and cognition in decision-making, including attention's role in consumption, moral judgments, and financial decisions. Current projects include distracted eating's effects on health, non-uptake of social welfare benefits, and neuropsychological mechanisms of hedonic compensation. Grants & Funding: €400k NWO grant (2023) for research on distractions and dietary habits Police and Science Program funding for camera evidence analysis studies Multiple ODISSEI-LISS grants (2020) on consumption patterns and welfare uptake Teaching: Lectures on decision-making at Leiden's BSc/MSc psychology programs and advises legislators/judiciary via Academie voor Wetgeving and Studiecentrum voor Rechtspleging. Labs/Teams: Affiliated with KCPEG and LIBC, collaborating on interdisciplinary projects combining psychology, neuroscience, and policy applications.
Alex Mariakakis is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto, leading the Computational Health and Interaction (CHAI) lab. His research focuses on leveraging ubiquitous and wearable technologies for healthcare applications, including smartphone-based health sensing for conditions like traumatic brain injury, jaundice, and inebriation. He holds affiliations with KITE@UHN and AXL venture studio, emphasizing translational research. Education: PhD in Computer Science (University of Washington, advised by Shwetak Patel and Jacob O. Wobbrock), B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science (Duke University). Prior roles include postdoctoral work at Sage Bionetworks and academic advising roles at UW. Key research interests include mobile health (mHealth), human-computer interaction, and machine learning applied to sensor data. His work has received Best Paper Awards at ACM CHI and COMPASS, and media attention from BBC and National Geographic. Recent activities include talks on embracing ubiquitous tech for healthcare (KITE Research Rounds, June 2025) and contributions to courses like 'Advanced Topics in Mobile Health.'
David Melcher is Professor of Psychology and Program Head in Psychology at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD), where he also serves as a Global Network Professor. He is affiliated with the Division of Science and leads the Perception and Active Cognition Lab, focusing on the integration of perception, attention, memory, and action within a cognitive neuroscience framework. PhD in Psychology and Cognitive Science, Rutgers University (2001) Former researcher and professor in Italy and the UK Current leadership: Program Head, Psychology, NYUAD David Melcher's research centers on cognitive neuroscience , particularly how perception, attention, working memory, eye movements, and self-motion interact to shape cognition and behavior. His lab emphasizes active cognition —the idea that perception is not passive but dynamically shaped by action, context, and goals. He investigates how temporal dynamics in neural processing organize perceptual experiences and guide decision-making. His work spans both healthy and clinical populations, exploring individual differences in spatial and temporal processing across the lifespan. The 15 most recent publications reflect a consistent focus on temporal organization in cognition , perception-action coupling , and neural mechanisms of attention and memory . Keywords across these works include cognitive neuroscience, perception, and neuroimaging, with subfields ranging from eye movement research and neural synchrony to computational modeling and clinical neuropsychology. Collectively, they demonstrate a trajectory toward integrative models of brain function that bridge behavioral, neuroimaging, and computational approaches. Among his notable recognitions is the Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology from the American Psychological Association (2011), highlighting the early impact of his work in cognitive neuroscience. Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology, APA (2011) David Melcher has advised numerous students through capstone projects in psychology and computer science, fostering interdisciplinary research at the intersection of cognitive science and technology. His research has been generously supported by major funding agencies including the European Research Council , the US National Institutes of Health , the Italian Ministry of Research and Education , and the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Expert Affairs . He also contributes to the academic community as a member of the editorial boards of Journal of Vision , Psychonomic Bulletin & Review , Perception , and iPerception . He leads the Perception and Active Cognition Lab at NYUAD, which employs a multidisciplinary approach combining behavioral experiments, neuroimaging (fMRI, EEG, MEG), eye-tracking, computational modeling, and clinical assessments. The lab’s research aims to understand how the brain constructs stable percepts from dynamic sensory input, particularly during active engagement with the environment.
Prof. Dr. Peter Vorderer is a full professor of Media and Communication Studies at the University of Mannheim's Philosophical Faculty, leading the Institute for Media and Communication Studies. He holds a PhD from TU Berlin and has held professorships at institutions such as the University of Toronto, USC's Annenberg School, and the Free University of Amsterdam since 2010. His research focuses on media psychology, exploring media effects, entertainment media narratives, and the pervasive role of digital connectivity in everyday life. Education includes studies at Heidelberg and Mannheim Universities, with additional training at NYU and the University of Michigan. He has served as editor for Zeitschrift für Medienpsychologie and Media Psychology , and as President of the International Communication Association (2014-2015). His work bridges psychological and societal impacts of media, emphasizing entertainment's cognitive and emotional dimensions. Key research themes include media-induced resonance theory, mobile communication's psychological effects, and digital dependency. His 15 most recent articles (2014-2020) reveal a focus on media's role in well-being, social behavior, and cognitive processing. Awards include ICA Fellowship (2016). His lab contributes to understanding media's dual hedonic/eudaimonic functions and their societal implications.
Dr. Ewan Jones is Associate Professor in Nineteenth-Century Literature at the University of Cambridge's Faculty of English and a Fellow at Downing College, where he serves as Director of Studies for Part II. He completed his BA, MPhil, and PhD at King's College, Cambridge, and was previously Thole Research Fellow at Trinity Hall. His educational background includes comprehensive training in English literature at Cambridge, with specialization in nineteenth-century literary studies. His academic journey reflects deep engagement with both traditional literary scholarship and innovative computational approaches to textual analysis. Dr. Jones's research concentrates on poetics, embodied cognition, and computational approaches to intellectual history. His work fundamentally questions how we understand 'close reading' not as interpretation but as a specific cognitive practice. He explores how aesthetic phenomenology can illuminate historical reading communities, develops pedagogical routines to de-habituate standard attention modes, and seeks constructive engagement between computational analysis and traditional reading practices. His scholarship bridges literary studies with cognitive science, demonstrating how rhythm, attention, and cognition intersect in literary form. His research trajectory shows increasing focus on attentional practices in reading, with recent work examining group attention practices and rhythm in Victorian poetry. The computational dimension of his work has grown steadily, moving from individual textual analysis to large-scale corpus studies through projects like the Concept Lab. Fulbright Scholar Leverhulme Research Fellowship (2021/22) on 'Close Reading as Attentional Practice' Residential fellow at the Swedish Collegium of Advanced Study Visiting fellow at Ludwig Maximilian Universität Visiting fellow at Pomona College Dr. Jones supervises doctoral work on diverse topics including 'radical conservatism' in Victorian poetry, queer theory and historical poetics, Wagner reception in Anglophone poetry, morphogenetic conceptions of form, and metre and exact measurement. His interdisciplinary collaborations include work with Phyllis Weliver on digitizing Tennyson manuscripts and with Peter de Bolla on computational concept analysis projects that have secured significant research funding. He has developed innovative teaching approaches that integrate cognitive science with literary analysis. He co-founded and participates in the Concept Lab, an interdisciplinary project developing open-source computational resources for historical dataset analysis. This initiative has fostered collaborations across humanities and computer science disciplines, creating tools that bridge traditional literary scholarship with digital methods. His work with the Princeton Prosody Archive demonstrates his commitment to building scholarly infrastructure for rhythm and meter studies.
Niels Henze is a Professor at the Chair of Media Informatics within the Faculty of Languages, Literature and Cultural Studies at the University of Regensburg, where he has been serving since May 2018. His research centers on human-computer interaction, with a strong focus on predictive models in interactive systems, mobile interaction, augmented and virtual reality, and attention-aware computing. His research interests include: Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Predictive modeling for runtime adaptation Mobile and wearable interaction Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR) Attention-aware and context-sensitive systems Sociocognitive aspects of interactive technologies The analysis of his recent publications reveals a consistent focus on leveraging user behavior and contextual cues to build intelligent, adaptive interfaces. His work integrates machine learning with interaction design, emphasizing real-time model updates, implicit feedback, and cognitive load awareness to improve usability and user experience across mobile and immersive platforms. Scientific awards: No awards mentioned in the provided text. Niels Henze leads research in adaptive interactive systems and advises students in the field of media informatics. He has previously held a junior professorship at the University of Stuttgart and completed his doctorate at the University of Oldenburg under Susanne Boll. He is actively involved in advancing the theoretical and practical foundations of predictive and attention-aware computing. Grants and funding sources are not specified in the text. He is associated with the Institute for Information and Media, Language and Culture (I:IMSK) at the University of Regensburg, contributing to a multidisciplinary environment that bridges informatics with cultural and linguistic studies.
Professor Michael Burke holds a full professorship in Rhetoric at Utrecht University (Faculty of Humanities) and teaches at University College Roosevelt (UCR) in Middelburg. Previously, he served as UU Honours Dean (2016–2021). His research focuses on rhetoric, stylistics, cognitive aspects of language, and education. He earned his Ph.D. in English Language and Literature from the University of Amsterdam, where he also completed his undergraduate studies. Research interests span written, oral, and digital rhetoric, emphasizing pedagogical, cognitive, stylistic, and neuroscientific dimensions. He has held visiting roles at institutions like the University of Cambridge and University of Bologna. Editorial roles include series editor for Routledge’s 'Research Monographs in Linguistics' and board memberships with journals like Language and Literature . Teaching includes undergraduate courses on classical rhetoric, argumentation, and public speaking at UCR, plus leadership and interdisciplinary research modules for Utrecht’s Honours College. He supervises PhD students in the UiL-OTS linguistics research school. Notable publications include The Routledge Handbook of Stylistics (2023) and studies on critical thinking, digital literacy, and cognitive literary science. Professional activities include keynote speaking at conferences like PCST and EARS, and contributions to projects such as ‘Undergraduate Research in the Netherlands’. His work bridges rhetoric, cognitive science, and education, emphasizing practical applications for students and educators.
Dr. Andrew Hines is a Researcher at the School of Computer Science, University College Dublin, specializing in machine learning applications for signal processing in speech, audio, and video domains. His work focuses on Quality of Experience (QoE) modeling, speech quality assessment, and immersive media analysis. He has held leadership roles in European COST Actions like Qualinet and CryptoAction, and previously worked in industry as a Director of Engineering. University: University College Dublin Role: Director of Research, Innovation and Impact Key Collaborations: IEEE (Senior Member), Audio Engineering Society (Ireland) Research interests center on machine learning for QoE optimization, audio-visual integration, and healthcare applications like heart sound classification and stroke rehabilitation. His recent publications explore self-supervised learning, neural speech codecs, and contextual factors in speech/audio quality assessment. Scientific contributions include awards like IEEE Senior Membership, and his work spans both academic research and industrial engineering in finance and aviation sectors. He leads the QxLab research team at UCD and develops open-source platforms such as WARP-Q and AQP for quality metrics.
Jens Kreitewolf is a Faculty Lecturer in the Departments of Psychology and Mathematics and Statistics at McGill University. He teaches courses in statistics, research methodology, and psychophysics. His research focuses on auditory cognition, speech comprehension, and the neural mechanisms underlying voice perception. Dr. Kreitewolf holds a Ph.D. (Dr. rer. nat.) from Humboldt University of Berlin and completed postdoctoral fellowships at BRAMS and the University of Lübeck. His work combines experimental psychology, neuroimaging, and psychophysics to explore auditory processing challenges in adverse listening conditions. Key interests include how familiarity with a talker’s voice aids comprehension and the impact of hearing impairment on speech perception. Education: M.Sc. in Psychology (Ruhr University Bochum, 2009); Ph.D. in Psychology (Humboldt University of Berlin, 2014). Research Interests: Auditory scene analysis and speech-in-noise processing Voice recognition and familiarity effects Neural correlates of perceptual decision-making Circadian rhythms and perceptual sensitivity Cognitive neuroscience of auditory attention Publications highlight contributions to understanding: Risk factors for depression symptom progression Self-concept clarity in romantic evaluations Neurobiological mechanisms of working memory vulnerability Vestibular symptoms in migraine patients His interdisciplinary approach bridges psychology, statistics, and neuroscience, with applications to clinical populations and sensory processing disorders.
