I'm a cognitive scientist studying human–AI collaboration: when partnerships with AI work, when they erode human skill, and how AI can strengthen human connection.
I'm on the 2026–27 job market!
I'm currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Kellogg School of Management and the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO), working with Dr. Matt Groh, where I build tools to support human communication and design AI evaluations that support human metacognition. I run large-scale lab, digital, and field experiments in real-world settings, combining behavioral data with computational and qualitative analysis. My research spans organizational behavior, AI, and human–computer interaction.
I earned my PhD in Cognitive Science from UC Irvine, advised by Dr. Mark Steyvers, along with an MS in Statistics from UCI and a B.Tech. from IIT Madras. My PhD research explored how people infer what a human or an AI collaborator knows, how good they are at a task, and when to rely on their advice. Using hierarchical Bayesian and item response theory models, I showed that the mental models people build of AI differ systematically from those they build of other humans; for example, people who accurately gauge another person's abilities consistently overestimate an AI's. Along the way, I've also worked in industry at Honda Research Institute and Motional (a robotaxi startup), and collaborated with researchers at Google Research India.
I'm always happy to chat about research, please reach out!
Selected work
See all publications on the research page or Google Scholar.
News
I'm co-organizing a symposium at AOM 2026 with Matt Groh: 'Augmenting Human Potential with Generative AI: Opportunities & Risks' — Tuesday, August 4, Philadelphia. Come join us!
I'll be presenting at the 'Generative AI as a Window into Organizations' PDW at AOM 2026 — consider submitting an extended abstract!
Nicholas Thompson (CEO, The Atlantic) shared a great summary of our work on AI and empathic communication.
Our paper 'When large language models are reliable for judging empathic communication' is out in Nature Machine Intelligence!
Read the paper →I presented my ongoing work on boosting people's empathic communication skills with LLM role playing games at CODE@MIT.
Conference →I gave a lightning talk at the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO) seminar.
I gave a talk at the JTIP Symposium on Navigating Innovation, AI, and Access in a Transforming Legal Landscape.
Read more →Our paper investigating people's perceptions of LLM confidence is out in Nature Machine Intelligence!
Read the paper →I started a new position as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Kellogg School of Management and the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO).
I defended my PhD thesis, 'Human Mental Models of Self, Others, and AI Agents'!
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