I am a fifth year PhD student at Princeton where I am part of Tom Griffiths' Computational Cognitive Science Lab.

Even in the absence of external rewards like money or food, we have internal motives that drive us to acquire information, pursue tasks, learn new things etc. What is it that drives us? Under what conditions do these drives become maladaptive? In my work, I employ computational modeling, behavioral experiments, and agent-based simulations to help develop a more complete picture of our intrinsic drives and motivations.

In my graduate work, I have focused on developing normative theories of curiosity and Aha! moments as well as developed some interventions to pique people's curiosity for everyday scientific topics. In my current line of work, I am studying the motives that drive us to keep wanting more, even if it leads to depression, materialism, and overconsumption. Beyond theoretical value, I hope this line of work can have impact on problems related to climate change and sustainability especially on curbing overconsumption.

In the past, I have also been involved with the Princeton Student Climate Initiative and the Yellowstone Ecological Research Center. Please feel free to get in touch if you have any ideas or want to colloborate on projects related to sustainability and fighting climate change.

Here's a tribute written in the memory of my friend who got me started into research