J. Galen Buckwalter, PhD

Ethical AI

J. Galen Buckwalter is a research psychologist with over 30 years of experience exploring the intersection of psychology, technology, and human behavior. He started his career as a research professor at the University of Southern California and later developed a behavioural outcomes research program at Kaiser Permanente. Galen is perhaps best known as the mind behind the groundbreaking assessment and matching system for eHarmony.com. Now, as CEO of psyML, Galen is harnessing psychology and AI to build digital systems that support individual growth. His research has taken him to the cutting edge of neuroscience—he’s a participant and scientist in a groundbreaking brain-machine interface trial aimed at restoring function after spinal cord injury, giving him unprecedented access to his own neural activity. And beyond the lab? Galen is the front man of Siggy, a pre-punk band of psychologists that’s rocked underground venues across LA. He’s written over 70 songs and is now exploring ways to integrate the sounds of his own brain activity into music.