We are now hiring for one role: Residence Coordinator (Berkeley).
Meet the Team
Christian Smith – Co-Director
Christian is Co-Director of MATS and a Board Member and Co-Founder of the London Initiative for Safe AI (LISA). Previously, he studied particle physics and pedagogy at Stanford University, worked in operations at multiple organizations including Lightcone Infrastructure, performed research at CERN, and organized educational programs like the Uncommon Sense Seminar.
Ryan Kidd – Co-Director
Ryan is Co-Director of MATS, a Board Member and Co-Founder of the London Initiative for Safe AI (LISA), and a Manifund Regrantor. Previously, he completed a BSc (Hons) and PhD in Physics at the University of Queensland (UQ), where he ran UQ’s Effective Altruism student group for three years, tutored physics courses, volunteered in academic, mental health, and ally roles, and helped organize the UQ Junior Physics Odyssey.
Laura Vaughan – Research Management Lead
Laura leads the Research Management Team at MATS, where she coordinates various program elements in Berkeley, coaches scholars to optimize program outcomes, and collaborates with Henry to support scholars and shape the London extension. A Thiel Fellow alum from 2017, Laura studied physics at the University of Waterloo and brings diversified experience in ML model dataset creation and training, entrepreneurship, full-stack software engineering, and biomedical research.
William Brewer – Operations Generalist
William is an Operations Generalist at MATS where he organizes events and coordinates with service providers. William also works in prompt engineering and software development. with a focus on generative musical systems. He studied philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin.
Rocket Drew – Community Manager
Rocket is the Community Manager at MATS, where he oversees the community's health and well-being. Rocket graduated from Brown University in 2022, where he studied Computer Science and Economics.
Carson Jones – Research Manager
Carson is a Research Manager at MATS where he does 1-1 coaching with scholars to help improve their productivity, research process, motivation, etc. Prior to MATS, Carson worked at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute as their Office Manager and, separately, has continued to maintain a private practice of coaching AI Safety researchers from various organizations.
McKenna Fitzgerald – Research Manager
McKenna is a Research Manager at MATS where she works with scholars to troubleshoot research issues, draft grant applications, work through career planning, and other meta-level support aimed at helping scholars get the most out of MATS during and after the program. Prior to MATS, she worked as the Deputy Director of the Global Catastrophic Risk Institute working on AI policy and ethics research. She holds a BA in Philosophy from UC, Berkeley (2018).
Juan Gil – Research Manager
Juan is a Research Manager at MATS where he coaches scholars and leads internal impact evaluations. Prior to MATS, Juan worked as a professional community builder for the Boston AI safety and Effective Altruism communities. He holds a B.S. in Mathematics with Computer Science from MIT (2020).