I am an associate professor in the Department of Maths and Applied Maths at the University of Cape Town and an adjunct professor at the INRS Montreal. Originally from Oxford, England, I completed my PhD at the University of Southampton in 2005, in applications of string theory to understanding quantum chromodynamics. I then had postdoctoral research positions in Beijing, Santiago de Compostela and Munich before becoming a lecturer at the University of Cape Town in the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics in 2013. I have a wide array of research interests and spend a lot of my time supervising students. My research interests cover machine learning (in particular reinforcement learning), theoretical physics, and neuroscience.I also love to teach! When not working, I can be found in the kitchen, with my camera, trying to get some exercise or attempting to improve my Mandarin.