Lab Director | Postdocs | Graduate Students | Project Manager | Undergraduate Research Assistants
Igor Grossmann, MSc, PhD
Lab Director
Igor Grossmann is a social-cognitive scientist studying sound judgment and wisdom across cultures. His work utilizes methods at the intersection of big data analytics, psychophysiology, diary surveys, and experiments. Grossmann studied at the University of Freiburg and at the University of Michigan, where he received his Ph.D. in 2012. He is currently an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Waterloo, Canada. His work has been published in such outlets as Nature Human Behaviour, Science Advances, PNAS, Proceedings of the Royal Academy: B, Perspectives on Psychological Science, Psychological Science, Journal of Experimental Psychology, and Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. His contributions have been recognized through numerous awards (e.g., SAGE Young Scholar award, Rising Star Award from APS, APA Dissertation Award, USERN Prize for Social Sciences). Grossmann has been an Associate Editor of Emotion and SPPS, and he is currently Editor-in-Chief of Psychological Inquiry. In his free time, he co-hosts the “On Wisdom Podcast,” sharing scientific insights from psychology, philosophy, and cognitive sciences.
Email: igrossma@uwaterloo.ca
CV [link]
Postdocs
Maksim Rudnev
Maksim Rudnev is a postdoc researcher at the Lab. He studies basic values and moral attitudes in a comparative perspective, as well as methods required for that, including structural equation, mixture, and multilevel modeling.
Email: maksim.rudnev@uwaterloo.ca
Graduate Students
Niyati Kachhiyapatel
Niyati is a second-year master's student in social psychology. She is interested in wisdom, well-being, and mindfulness, specifically training wisdom and examining whether it helps individuals navigate life changes effectively. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, watching movies, dancing, writing poetry, and blogging.
Email: nkachhiyapatel@uwaterloo.ca
Jackson Smith
Jackson is a PhD Candidate in Clinical Psychology. He studies the psychological and relational consequences of childhood trauma and adversity, family processes in stressful contexts, and multisystemic resilience. He applies a complex systems framework to understand these processes using psychometric network analysis. In collaboration with Igor Grossmann, he examines the relationship between wisdom and adversity at multiple levels of analysis.
Email: jackson.smith@uwaterloo.ca
Peter Diep
Peter is a first-gen MA graduate student under Dr. Grossmann’s supervision. His primary interests include the metacognitive and social cognitive processes of wise reasoning, its applications, and meta-science practices in wisdom research. He also examines social connection through a predictive processing lens. He aims to master rigorous research practices and support trust in the scientific enterprise. Outside of science, he enjoys reading, playing games, and keeping peace between his cats, Bella and Nala.
Email: pndiep@uwaterloo.ca
Maryam Ghorbansabagh
Maryam is a first-year MASc student in Electrical and Computer Engineering, co-supervised by Prof. Igor Grossmann and Prof. Amir-Hossein Karimi. She conducts interdisciplinary research at the intersection of AI and psychology, focusing on ethical AI and human-AI interactions. More broadly, she explores the impact of emerging technologies on human behavior, aiming to design technology in harmony with human values.
Email: maryam.ghorbansabagh@uwaterloo.ca
Neil Wegenschimmel
Neil is a second-year graduate student with a background in sociology. He is broadly interested in cultural and social change, political psychology, personality, meaning and belief in different contexts (religion, extremism, polarization, and nihilism), media and information consumption, and the effect of digital social life on what we see as being real or true. He is currently researching how perceptions of societal extremism might influence social norms. Outside of psychology, Neil reads and writes widely while maintaining a life-long love of music-making, vinyl records, literature, travel, and history.
Email: nhwegenschimmel@uwaterloo.ca
Project Manager
Berke Aydas
Berke is a Ph.D. candidate in social psychology at 9 Eylül University. He serves as the project/lab manager for the WAC lab and WJC, managing schedules and overseeing project operations. Berke’s primary research interest lies in how human cognition shapes everyday moral decision-making, examining belief in free will, retributive punishment, and how to alter punitive attitudes.
Outside of academia, he is a fan of the Star Wars series and the Lord of the Rings universe, harboring an ambition to develop a game inspired by these rich worlds.
Email: berke.aydas@uwaterloo.ca
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Molly Matthews
Molly is a fourth-year undergraduate student pursuing her BSc in Psychology with minors in Biology and Legal Studies. She has broad interests in psychology research, statistics, and research methods. In her free time, she enjoys playing sports and watching true crime documentaries.
Email: m8matthe@uwaterloo.ca
Lukas Salib
Lukas is a fourth-year undergraduate student at the University of Waterloo pursuing a BA in Psychology. He is interested in social phenomena and how experiences shape individuals. He is also an artist with an interest in existentialist philosophy. In his free time, he reads and plays trading card games like Magic: The Gathering.
Email: lsalib@uwaterloo.ca
Neika Zawar
Neika is entering her fourth year as a BSc Psychology student. She is passionate about cultural variations in human behavior and human-AI interactions. Outside of academics, she enjoys singing in the University of Waterloo A Cappella Club and baking.
Email: nzawar@uwaterloo.ca