Alumni

After successfully defending his dissertation in December 2021, Manuel Arnold went on to become a lecturer at the Department of Psychology at the Humboldt University in Berlin. Manuel was a graduate of the IMPRS COMP2PSYCH programme working with Manuel Völke at the HU Berlin. more

A former fellow of the Max Planck UCL Centre in London, Nadim worked with Dr Stephen Fleming, Dr Quentin Huys, and Professor Ray Dolan on understanding the relationship between symptoms of mental illness and deficits in metacognitive ability. Nadim left the centre in the Fall of 2020. more

Dominik Bach headed the Threat Avoidance Group at the London site of the Max Planck UCL Centre until late 2023. He is now at the University of Bonn. more

Rachel Bedder is a graduate of the IMPRS COMP2PSYCH programme and was a member of the research team of the Rutledge Lab in London. After defending her dissertation in April 2021, she joins Prof. Yael Niv's lab at Princeton Neuroscience in July 2021. more

Bastien Blain joined the Affective Brain Lab, headed by Tali Sharot, at University College London as a research associate in Spring 2020. He previously worked with Robb Rutledge on mood dynamics and their link to decision making. more

Nan Chen worked as a research assistant in Ray Dolan’s Reward, Decision Making and Psychopathology Group in London. As of September 2024 she is pursuing her PhD at the Max Planck School of Cognition. more

Benjamin is a graduate of the IMPRS COMP2PSYCH programme and was a member of the research team of the Rutledge Lab in London. He left in 2019 and has since co-founded the artificial intelligence startup Whimseo. more

Samson Chien was a Postdoc in the Computational Decision Making and Learning Group headed by Nico Schuck until September 2021. He now works as a freelance data scientist.

Simon Ciranka was a graduate of the IMPRS COMP2PSYCH programme at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. He successfully defended his dissertation in August 2021 and is now a research scientist at the Center for Adaptive Rationality at the MPI. more

Daisy Crawley successfully completed her doctorate in Clinical Psychology (DClinPsy) at University College London in late 2023. She was a fellow of the Max Planck UCL Centre working with Quentin Huys in the Applied Computational Psychiatry Lab in London. She joined Homerton Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust in December 2023 as a Clinical Psychologist. more

Magda Del Rio was a fellow of the Max Planck UCL Centre in London, working with Tobias Hauser in the Developmental Computational Psychiatry Lab. She left in 2025 to join Matt Nassar’s lab at Brown University. more

Lorenz Deserno was a postdoctoral fellow at the London site of the Max Planck UCL Centre until Spring 2020. Since then he has joined the faculty of the University of Würzburg, Germany, as an Associate Professor for Neuroscience in Developmental Psychiatry. He is also a Research Associate at the Department of Neurology, headed by Prof. Dr. Arno Villringer, at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig. more

Magda Dubois was a fellow of the IMPRS COMP2PSYCH programme in London under the supervision of Tobias Hauser. She defended her dissertation at UCL in Fall 2022. She is currently a data scientist at Tortus. more

Eran Eldar was a postdoctoral fellow at the London site of the Max Planck UCL Centre until 2018. He joined the faculty of the Department of Cognitive Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he heads the Computational Cognition Lab. more

A graduate of the International Max Planck Research School COMP2PSYCH, Sam completed his PhD in 2019. He was part of the research team of Prof. Ray Dolan at the Cognition and Computational Psychiatry lab at the Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging in London. He is now a medical student at UCL Medical School.
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Susan Fischer, former Coordinator on the London site, left in July 2020 to join the Eberhard Karls University Tübingen / Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen as Scientific Coordinator.

Thomas FitzGerald was an honorary fellow at the London site of the Max Planck UCL Centre until 2019. He is currently Associate Professor in Psychology at the University of East Anglia, UK. more

Isaac Fradkin was a fellow with Ray Dolan at the London site of the Max Planck UCL Centre until 2023. He accepted a position as Assistant Professor at the Hebrew University. more

Shany Grossman was a Zuckerman postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. She was a member in Nico Schuck's lab "Computational Decision Making and Learning Group" until its conclusion in 2023. Today she is continuing her postdoctoral research in Nico's lab, now based at the University of Hamburg. more

Sam Hall-McMaster was an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. He was a member of Nico Schuck’s lab “Computational Decision Making and Learning Group” until its conclusion in 2023. He moved to Harvard University in late 2023. more

Sam Hewitt was a fellow of the IMPRS COMP2PSYCH programme at the London site and finished his PhD in 2025. more

Alexandra Hopkins was a fellow of the IMPRS COMP2PSYCH programme in London until the end of 2021. She has since then joined the Department of Psychology at Royal Holloway University of London as a postdoctoral researcher. more

A Sir Henry Dale Fellow, Laurence Hunt is a principal investigator at the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford. He was previously an honorary fellow at the London site of the Max Planck UCL Centre. more

Sucharit Katyal completed a postdoc in the MetaLab (PI Steve Fleming) investigating the possibilities and mechanisms of metacognitive training. He has since joined the Department of Psychology at the University of Copenhagen. more

A former fellow at the London site, Mehdi is now at City University of London. more

Niels Kloosterman is an alumni of the Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research and the Center for Lifespan Psychology at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin until August 2022. Since then he has joined the Psychology Department at the University of Lübeck as a researcher and lecturer in computational psychology. more

Christoph was a doctoral student and postdoc with Nico Schuck in the “Computational Decision Making and Learning Group” at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, where he mainly studied the effects of aging on human spatial navigation. He has since then made a transition into the field of data science. We wish him all the best! more

Ylva Köhncke belonged to the Berlin faculty of the IMPRS COMP2PSYCH programme. She left the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, at the end of 2022 to pursue further training as a psychotherapist. We wish her well!

Julian Q. Kosciessa was a fellow of the IMPRS COMP2PSYCH programme in Berlin until 2020. This was followed by a postdoctoral position at the Center for Lifespan Psychology, while remaining a fellow of the Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research until July 2022. He is now a postdoctoral researcher at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour in Nijmegen, Netherlands. more

Wanjun Lin was a fellow of the Max Planck UCL Centre in London, working with Ray Dolan in the Reward, Decision Making and Psychopathology Group. She left in early 2025 to take up a fellow position at Aarhus University. more

Anika Löwe was a fellow of the IMPRS COMP2PSYCH programme in Berlin in the group of Nico Schuck until Fall 2024. She defended her dissertation at the University of Hamburg in January 2025 and begins a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Freiburg in Germany also in January 2025. more

Alisa Loosen completed her dissertation at UCL in 2023. She was a fellow of the IMPRS COMP2PSYCH programme and is now a postdoctoral research at Yale University. more

Lennart Luettgau was a fellow of the Max Planck UCL Centre in London. He left in 2025 to join the AI Security Institute in London as a research scientist. more

Jolanda Malamud was a fellow of the IMPRS COMP2PSYCH programme in London under the supervision of Quentin Huys and Ray Dolan. She left in 2023. more

A former honorary fellow of the London site of the Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, Andrei is has moved back to the Psychiatric University Hospital in Zurich. more

Kristoffer Månsson is a former fellow of the Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research in Berlin. He was closely associated with the Lifespan Neural Dynamics Group headed by Doug Garrett. Kristoffer is an Associate Professor at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. more

Jessica McFadyen was a Fellow at the London site of the Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research until 2022. She is now a cognitive scientist at Alena. more

Daniel McNamee was a fellow at the London site of the Max Planck UCL Centre, working with Ray Dolan at the Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging. He left MPC London in May 2020. more

Jochen was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the London site of the Max Planck UCL Centre from 2016 until early 2020, working with Prof Ray Dolan. He has now moved back to clinical training at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the Charité Berlin. At the Charité, he is also continuing his research program, using a translational approach, combining neuropharmacology, functional neuroimaging and computational modelling to improve diagnosis and treatment of those with mental illness. In particular, his research focuses on improving an understanding of the cognitive computational mechanisms underlying antidepressant treatment. more

Nir Moneta was an Einstein Center for Neuroscience fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. He was a PhD student in Nico Schuck's lab "Computational Decision Making and Learning Group" until its conclusion in December 2023. Nir divides his time between the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin and the University Hamburg, where he is in the final stages of finishing his dissertation. more

Rita Moura Alexandre was a member of the IMPRS COMP2PSYCH programme under Ray Dolan and Elliott Wimmer. She returned to the Nova Medical School in Lisbon, Portugal in 2024 to finish her PhD.

Janaina Mourao-Miranda was a fellow at the London site of the Max Planck UCL Centre until the end of 2023. She was also a faculty member of the IMPRS COMP2PSYCH programme. She is currently a Professorial Research Associate at UCL’s Department of Computer Science. more

Michael is currently a research fellow at Prof. Ray Dolan's lab at Cognition and Computational Psychiaty, UCL. more

Emma was a fellow of the IMPRS COMP2PSYCH programme in London. She left the programme in May 2024 to pursue other interests.

A former fellow of the Max Planck UCL Centre in London, Ritwik Niyogi left the Centre in Fall 2020. more

Agnes Norbury was a fellow at the London site of the Max Planck UCL Centre in Quentin Huys’ ACP Lab. She left in August 2023 and is now with thymia. more

Matthew Nour was a fellow of the IMPRS COMP2PSYCH programme until Spring 2022. His dissertation investigated behavioural and neural signatures of ‘cognitive map’ representations in schizophrenia. Matthew was appointed as an NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Psychiatry at University of Oxford in June 2022. He remains an Honorary Fellow of the Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research in London.
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Aysegül Özkan was a Fellow of the MPS UCL Centre until August 2024. She was a member of the Learning Memory & Decision Lab headed by Elliott Wimmer. Aysegül left to take up a faculty position at Abdullah Gül University in Turkey. more

Alistair was a postdoc fellow in Berlin in the Lifespan Neural Dynamics Group of Doug Garrett in 2018 until March 2020. He has now joined the Cambridge Centre for Frontotemporal Dementia and Related Disorders at the Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge. more

Marit Petzka was a member in Nico Schuck's lab "Computational Decision Making and Learning Group" until its conclusion in December 2023. She continues to work as a postdoctoral fellow with Nico Schuck at the University of Hamburg. more

Lili Polanski was a fellow of the IMPRS COMP2PSYCH programme in the Berlin in the Lifespan Neural Dynamics Group headed by Douglas D. Garrett. She defended her dissertation in November 2024 and is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Lifespan Psychology at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. more

Andrea Reiter, formerly a fellow at the London site of the Max Planck UCL Centre, is currently a research fellow at the Chair of Lifespan Developmental Neuroscience at the Technical University Dresden. more

Max Rollwage was a fellow of the IMPRS COMP2PSYCH programme in London until September 2020. more

Evan M. Russek was a postdoctoral researcher in Quentin Huys' lab Applied Computational Psychiatry up until September 2021, before he moved to Princeton University. more

Robb Rutledge was the leader of the Decision Making and Emotion Group at the London site of the Max Planck UCL Centre. He is also a former faculty member of the IMPRS COMP2PSYCH graduate programme. Robb joined the Department of Psychology at Yale University as an Assistant Professor in Spring 2020. more

Ulises Serratos Hernandez was a Fellow of the Max Planck UCL Centre in London working with Dominik Bach in the Thread Avoidance Group until its conclusion in October 2023.

Nitzan was an Honorary Fellow at the London site of the Max Planck UCL Centre until early 2020. He is now at the Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv, Israel. more

Paul was a fellow at the London site of the Max Planck UCL Centre from 2019 to 2021 working with Eran Eldar. He has joined Robb Rutledge’s lab at Yale University as a postdoctoral fellow and continues to work with Eran Eldar as a Fulbright postdoctoral fellow at the Computational Cognition Lab at Hebrew University. more

Medha Shekar, a former fellow of the Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research left the London site in September 2022 to join the Rahnev Lab at Georgia Institute of Technology, USA. more

A former PhD candidate of the IMPRS COMP2PSYCH programme in London, Yuki returned to Japan in Fall 2020. more

Alexander Skowron was a fellow of the IMPRS COMP2PSYCH programme in Berlin in the Lifespan Neural Dynamics Group headed by Douglas D. Garrett. He defended his dissertation in November 2024 and is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Center for Lifespan Psychology at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. more

Vasilisa Skvortsova was a fellow at the Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research in London until early 2022. She is now a Senior Data Scientist at Dataiku in London. more

Juliana Sporrer is a PhD student in the Threat Avoidance Group (PI Dominik Bach) at UCL. Her membership with the Max Planck UCL Centre ended with the conclusion of the Threat Avoidance Group in October 2023. more

Hrvoje was a fellow at the London site of the Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research. He moved to Prowler as a Senior Machine Learning Researche in March 2020, and is currently a Research Scientist at Secondmind. more

George Tertikas was a fellow of the Max Planck UCL Centre in London until early 2025. He is currently a psychiatrist at East London NHS Foundation Trust. more

Nadescha Trudel was a member of the DCP Lab (PI Tobias Hauser) until 2023 and has accepted a position at Unmind. more

A former honorary fellow of the Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, Matilde moved to Stanford University in March 2020. She is currently a lecturer in psychology at the University of East Anglia. more

A former honorary fellow, Lucy moved to King's College London in early 2020. more

Wouter van den Bos is now an Associate Professor at the Developmental Psychology Department of the  University of Amsterdam & Director of the Connected Minds Lab, and Adjunct Research Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development Center for Adaptive Rationality. more

Leonhard Waschke was a fellow with the Lifespan Neural Dynamics Group in Berlin since 2020. He left in March 2023 to be a policy officer at the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Berlin. more

Toby Wise was a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellow at the London site of the Max Planck UCL Centre from 2017 to 2021. more

Lennart Wittkuhn was a Fellow of the IMPRS COMP2PSYCH Programme until January 2023. He defended his dissertation in April 2023 and subsequently joined Nico Schuck at the University of Hamburg as a postdoctoral researcher and lab manager at the Institute of Psychology. He continues to be affiliated with the Max Planck UCL Centre as an Honorary Fellow. more

Iris Wiegand was a fellow with the Lifespan Neural Dynamics Group in Berlin from 2016-2020. While being a fellow at the Berlin site of the Max Planck UCL Centre, Iris also spent time as a fellow at Brigham & Women's Hospital at Harvard University and a lecturer in the Department of Psychology at the University of Bielefeld. In September 2020, Iris joins the faculty of Radboud University in the Netherlands as an Assistant Professor. more

Sajjad Zabbah was a Fellow of the Max Planck UCL Centre in London working with Dominik Bach in the Thread Avoidance Group until its conclusion in October 2023.