Rani Moran
Fellow, Max Planck UCL Centre, London
Rani Moran earned his B.Sc. (1995-1998) and M.Sc. (1998-2001) in Mathematics from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. After completing his M.Sc., he worked in industry, including areas such as communication systems, algorithmic financial trading, and solar-energy. During these years, Rani patented several inventions (e.g., efficient solar reflectors) and developed a keen interest in Psychology. He earned a BA in Psychology from the Open University of Israel in 2009 and later decided (much to the chagrin of his friends, colleagues and accountant!) to embark on a PhD in Cognitive Psychology (2011-2015) at Tel-Aviv University. In his PhD research, Rani used his expertise in mathematics and statistical inference to push forward our understanding of control processes in human decision making and episodic memory. After finishing his PhD, Rani joined the Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research in UCL as a Postdoctoral Research Associate (2016-2022), where he studied dual control (model-based and model-free) reinforcement learning. Rani will soon start a new position as a Lecturer in Psychology in the Department of Biological and Experimental Psychology at Queen Mary University of London. When he is not thinking about science, Rani would probably say that he's reflecting on Literature, Music and Art – but don't be fooled, he is actually thinking about food and wine.