Avatar

Nicholas M. Michalak

Data Scientist | Ph.D. Social Psychology

Lumen Technologies, Inc.

I’ve been working as a Data Scientist in Telcom for a little over a year. Before starting my role in industry, I was a Data Science Fellow at Insight Data Science and a Social Psychologist working with Josh Ackerman at the University of Michigan. More broadly, I have 10 years of experience conducting research in the social sciences with a focus on motivation and social cognition. I’m skilled in statistical modeling, machine learning, and experimental design.

As a Data Science Fellow, I spent 7 (intense) weeks honing my skills in computer science fundamentals, applied statistical modeling, and machine learning. During four of those weeks, I developed a Flask web application—Next Escape (nextescape.me)—that simplifies web searches for users looking for an ideal escape room or escape rooms similar to ones they’ve played and enjoyed before (GitHub | Slides).

As a psychology researcher, I used advanced methods and statistics to study how both modern and evolutionarily-relevant threats affect how people perceive themselves and others. For example, I used the reverse correlation image classification task to estimate mental representations of infected persons. I’m currently conducting a Cross-Temporal Meta-Analysis to test whether stereotype threat effects have dissapated over time, depending on negatively stereotyped group (e.g., Women, Black Americans).

Interests

  • Person Perception
  • Nonverbal
  • Threat
  • Evolution

Education

  • Ph.D. in Social Psychology, 2020

    University of Michigan

  • M.S. in Social Psychology, 2017

    University of Michigan

  • B.S. in Neuroscience, 2012

    University of St. Thomas (MN)