Research Team
Research Team
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Principal Investigator
Principal Investigator
Dr. Kostadin Kushlev is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Georgetown University, where he directs the Happy Tech Lab. Across his work, Dr. Kushlev studies the role of digital technology in health and well-being, pairing basic scientific questions with real-world applications. His research examines behavior and health as they unfold in people's daily lives, drawing on real-time monitoring, large-scale survey datasets, and Big Data methods, and employing advanced statistical approaches, including machine learning and multilevel modeling. He also develops interventions to increase happiness and improve health through targeted changes in people's digital behavior. His goal is to understand the psychological processes behind human health, happiness, and flourishing in a digitized world.
He earned his Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia in 2015 and spent three years as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Virginia. His research has been published in journals including Psychological Science and covered by The New York Times, Forbes, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, NBC News, PBS, and The Washington Post.
Co-Investigator
Co-Investigator
Dr. Emily Aron is a child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist dedicated to helping children and families build strong foundations for mental health. Dr. Aron serves as an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, balancing clinical work, teaching, and mentoring with developing innovative ways to meet the growing mental health needs of her community. Dr. Aron is also Medical Director of an Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Clinic, partnering with parents to promote emotional well-being right from the start. She holds her medical degree from Georgetown School of Medicine and completed psychiatry training at Mt. Sinai and a fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry at NYU.
Project Manager
Project Manager
Alejandro Jaco works directly with Dr. Kushlev and Dr. Aron to execute this project. He holds a B.S. in Cognitive Science from Yale University. While at Yale, Alejandro completed his Honors Thesis in the Neuroscience of Social Behavior Lab under Steve W.C. Chang, in which he examined how social dynamics influence the subjective valuation of shared rewards. After graduation, Alejandro joined the Neurosurgery Department at George Washington University’s Medical Faculty Associates as a clinical research assistant, where he managed several investigator-led and industry-sponsored clinical trials. Looking ahead, he plans to apply to PhD programs in psychology and neuroscience.
Academic Collaborators
Academic Collaborators
Dr. Matthew Biel
Matthew Biel, MD, MSc is Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at Georgetown University Medical Center, where he holds the Marriott Chair in Child, Adolescent, and Family Mental Health and serves as Division Chief of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. His work focuses on supporting the resilience and wellbeing of children and families and improving access to mental health care in community settings such as schools and primary care. He co-founded the Early Childhood Innovation Network in Washington, DC, and was selected as an Aspen Ascend Fellow in 2018. Dr. Biel received his MD and MSc from Mount Sinai School of Medicine and completed his psychiatric training at NYU School of Medicine.
Dr. Noah Castelo
Noah Castelo, PhD is the Ronald K. Banister Chair in Business and Associate Professor of Marketing at the Alberta School of Business, University of Alberta. His research focuses on the use of artificial intelligence in marketing and consumer behavior, with work published in Harvard Business Review, Marketing Science, and the Journal of Marketing Research, among other outlets. He holds a PhD in Marketing from Columbia Business School.
Dr. Michael Esterman
Michael Scott Esterman, PhD is Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and a Health Science Specialist at the VA Boston Healthcare System National Center for PTSD. His research applies cognitive neuroscience methods to study attention, executive function, and neuropsychiatric disorders including PTSD. He earned his PhD in Psychology from UC Berkeley and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Adrian Ward
Adrian Ward, PhD is Associate Professor of Marketing at the McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin. His research examines how relationships with technology and other people shape attention, knowledge, and decision-making — including how smartphone presence affects cognitive capacity and how Googling influences self-perceived knowledge. His work has appeared in PNAS, the Journal of Consumer Research, and Psychological Science, and has been covered by The New York Times, The Atlantic, and The Wall Street Journal. He holds an MA and PhD in Psychology from Harvard University.
Dr. Gabriella Harari
Gabriella Harari, PhD is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at Stanford University, where she directs the Media and Personality Lab. Her research examines how personality is expressed in everyday physical and digital contexts, using methods such as experience sampling, mobile sensing, and machine learning. Her work has been published in Perspectives in Psychological Science and the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and has been supported by the National Science Foundation and Stanford HAI. She earned her PhD from the University of Texas at Austin.
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Zara Niazi
Gabriella Lipari
Adia Nygaard
Beatrice Wilson
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