Ivan is a post-doc in the departments of Human Evolutionary Biology and Psychology at Harvard. He is the son of Russian immigrants to the US and completed his BA in Edinburgh, Scotland and PhD in the department of Psychology at Harvard. In his free time he spends time doing various sports (especially judo, boxing), reading and watching movies. His primary research interest is in how culture comes to shape cognitive development - which he attempts to pursue across as many disciplines and as many levels of analysis as possible. To illustrate: We are all familiar with the feeling of not belonging in certain places and contexts and how difficult it can be to do things that the locals seem to find as easy as breathing - e.g. know who to talk to and how to talk to them, know what is important and what isn't. Ivan's research interests center around how we can study these issues in scientific detail - all the way from sociological analyses, to what cognitive skills children develop as they grow up in a particular community, to how these differences are expressed in brain structures. As both a personal and professional interest, Ivan is committed to promoting academic achievement in traditionally underrepresented groups. He is particularly interested in taking this as an opportunity to capitalize on individuals' lived experience and bring new perspectives into the field - as opposed to shaping new scientists into existing molds.