I was born in the stunningly beautiful region of Bukovina in Northern Romania. I didn't quite realise its beauty at the time, but I remember it as a safe and green time, splashing in rivers, climbing trees, reading books up on a tree branch. I eventually moved to the capital city of Bucharest, which by comparison was grey and smokey. In school, I'd always been good at maths, so when I had the choice at 13, I went to a high school focused on computer science. We spent around 7 hours a week staring at the computer screen, writing code. When I was about 15, my grandfather gave me a book that briefly presented the history of psychology in cartoons. I read it several times in one week. I ended up doing two University degrees - one in Computer Science and one in Psychology.
2003-2007
I did my BA in Psychology in Bucharest. A four-year Bachelor's, as they had them in my day. Fondest memory is spending a huge amount of time reading the classics in the beautiful Central University Library in Bucharest.
2003-2008
I also did a second degree, part-time, in Bucharest. This was a combined degree in Computer Science and Economics. I mostly attended and enjoyed the programming courses (remember the Pascal programming language anyone!?)
2004-2008
During my Uni days, apart from spending every other weekend hiking mountains, I was involved in lots of voluntary projects with Bucharest-based NGOs, mostly in youth/civic education, and briefly worked in the NGO sector in applied research.
2008-2009
My interest in psychology research grew alongside my involvement in the NGO sector. In a country transitioning from totalitarianism to some sort of democracy, I wanted to better understand these social dynamics and I decided to study social and political psychology. I travelled to the green pastures of Devon in England, for an MSc in Social and Organizational Psychology at the University of Exeter.
2009-2013
During the MSc, I was offered a scholarship to carry on my research in a PhD in Social Psychology. I learned an incredible amount about theories and research methods, and graduated in July 2013 with a sincere doubt that any of it could be put into action to make a real difference.
2013-2018
Looking to explore a more applied approach to doing research, I moved to Exeter University's Business School, to work in a multidisciplinary team looking at social processes surrounding tax compliance, avoidance, and evasion, in close collaboration to the UK tax authority. I started out as a researcher, and then became a lecturer.
2013-
At the same time as doing my research work, I started going back to my earlier interest in programming to create some research communication tools. This coincided with my partner's interest in psychology-based mobile apps, and we became a pair of enthusiasts in how these 'computers in people's pockets' would revolutionise psychological and social science. We wanted to experience this revolution first-hand, so we founded PsyNovigo, a company that builds software based on research.
2018-
I eventually decided to take a break from the academic career I had started. Partly, this was to focus on growing our business. And partly to pursue more applied research projects, where I can see the immediate impact of my work. I also moved countries after 10 years in the UK back to my native Romania, this time to the cool city of Cluj.
For collaborations, consultancies, chatting about ideas, please get in touch