Dr. Ida Momennejad is a Principal Researcher in Reinforcement Learning at Microsoft Research NYC. She studies how we build models of the world and use them in memory, exploration, & planning. She builds and tests neurally plausible algorithms for learning the structure of the environment. Her approach combines reinforcement learning, neural networks, & machine learning with behavioral experiments, fMRI, & electrophysiology. Her training is in cognitive computational neuroscience (via computer science and philosophy). She did her doctoral work in psychology at Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience in Berlin, Germany. She has also previously worked at Columbia University, Electrophysiology, Memory, and Navigation Lab and did her postdoc at Princeton (in collaboration with Ken Norman, Matt Botvinick, Jon Cohen, Nathaniel Daw).