About Me

Professional Bio

I was born in the outskirts of Istanbul, Turkey and moved to Texas at age 6. This early cross-cultural experience sparked my interest in cognitive processes and adaptive learning—themes that continue to influence my professional journey.

During high school, I balanced technical skills with creative thinking, contributing to a project that was later implemented on the International Space Station. This early success guided me toward a degree in neuroscience at UT Austin, where I combined rigorous academic training with practical research.

While at UT Austin, I developed expertise in:

• Large scale data analysis of behavior and neural signals
• Experimental design and coding, often helping others turn ideas into code

My PhD work at Washington University in St. Louis has further honed my ability to conceptualize and execute complex projects. I specialize in connecting machine learning and cognitive science, with particular focus on:

• Reinforcement learning algorithms
• Neural decoding and representational similarity approaches
• Data visualization and analysis
• Optimizing analytic pipelines to process large quantities of data

I thrive in environments that value innovation and cross-disciplinary approaches. My background combining technical implementation with theoretical understanding positions me to deliver insights that bridge cognitive science and practical applications.