Brenden M. Lake

Brenden M. Lake is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Data Science at New York University, transitioning to Princeton University in Fall 2025 as an Associate Professor of Computer Science and Psychology. His work bridges human cognition and machine intelligence, focusing on computational models that explain cognitive phenomena while advancing AI capabilities.

• Research Themes: Few-shot concept learning, neuro-symbolic modeling, grounded language acquisition from child input, systematic generalization in neural networks, and human-inspired inductive biases.
• Lab Affiliation: Human & Machine Intelligence Lab at Princeton (formerly NYU’s Human & Machine Learning Lab), utilizing child-centric data and meta-learning frameworks.

Scientific Recognition:

• MIT Technology Review 35 Under 35 (2019)
• Society of Mathematical Psychology Outstanding Paper Award (2018)

Academic Contributions: Pioneering research on few-shot learning, program induction, and systematic generalization in humans and machines. His Nature (2023) and Science (2024) publications demonstrate how human cognitive mechanisms can enhance AI systems.