Our team

Dragan is a cognitive neuroscientist whose research explores the neural and psychological mechanisms underlying economic decision-making. His work bridges psychology, neuroscience, and behavioral economics to understand how people evaluate risk, reward, and uncertainty. Dragan’s research combines advanced neuroimaging and neurostimulation techniques with computational modeling to uncover how the brain supports choices in complex environments.

He earned his PhD in Systemic Neuroscience from Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany, where he specialized in cognitive neuroscience and decision-making. Before joining Swinburne University of Technology as a Senior Lecturer, Dragan held research positions at The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.

He is passionate about translating scientific insights into real-world applications, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, and mentoring the next generation of researchers.

Alyse joined the lab in October 2025, to work on a project that investigates whether monitoring brain activity using electroencephalography can be leveraged to assist real-time monitoring of cognitive states in high-risk professions such as long-distance driving.

She received PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience from La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. During a postdoc at the University of Cambridge’s MRC Cognition and Brain Science Unit (CBU), UK, Alyse developed imaging techniques to serve as a passive measure of semantic processing in non-verbal Autism. She then held a Research Fellow position with the MedTechVic team, developing accessible communication tools for people with disability, and coordinated projects involving VR and motion capture technologies for use in allied health.

Alyse has keen interest in accessible research design, ensuring research is truly representative of a population regardless of disability, and in the development of ethical protocols that protect and give voice to people with disability in research.

Ben joined the lab in February 2026. His current project is to characterise functional brain networks that support sensory integration in the service of perceptual decision-making.

He received his PhD from Swinburne University of Technology in 2022 and has been working in research and academia since. Ben is an experienced cognitive neuroscientist with expertise in non-invasive brain imaging (MEG, EEG, fMRI) and computational modelling of multidimensional neural time series.

His research interests focus on improving symptoms of disease, particularly dementia, using non-pharmaceutical therapies, such as music therapy, by targeting functional neural networks. His main goal is to use neuroimaging to provide objective evidence for the effectiveness of these therapies, and to understand how they work to mitigate symptoms of dementia.