I am an associate professor in the Department of Maths and Applied Maths, Director of the UCT AI Initiative 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.