Postdoctoral scholar, Department of Psychology

Ph.D., Psychology, USC, 2018
MSc, Psychology, University of Auckland, 2012
BSc, Psychology and Computer Science, 2009.

Ben Smith is a postdoctoral scholar at the Department of Psychology at the University of Oregon. His research interests are in construal level theory, the neuroscience of motivation and decision-making, particularly interactions between the prefrontal cortex and subcortical areas, fMRI methods, and applications of data science and artificial intelligence in psychology research. He’s also interested in applications of all these areas to translational neuroscience of depression, anxiety, and other widespread and harmful health conditions, and likes to keep a keen eye on applications of neuroscience and psychology in artificial intelligence alignment research. Ben has previously published as a lead author in Social Cognitive Affective Neuroscience, Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, and the New Zealand Medical Journal. Besides research, Ben has spent time in the private tech sector as a data scientist, web developer, and support consultant, and has interned as a User Experience Researcher at Facebook. He tweets as @curiouskiwicat.