About
I'm Ian. I build ML systems and run experiments on how language models behave. Right now I'm co-founder and CTO of Axis, a Y Combinator–backed startup. I just finished my B.S. in Computer Science at Yale, where I focused on machine learning and statistics. (Magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, Distinction in the Major.)
Now
At Axis I built most of the application layer myself: data ingestion, a provenance-tracked knowledge graph, and a forecasting backend.
I also direct LabOS, an agent-driven research lab where AI agents run the experiments and I set the questions and read the results.
On the side, I design and run an algorithmic market-making system on Kalshi's prediction markets: order-book ingestion, automated quoting, and inventory control, with hard risk limits. Across two live accounts it booked ~$64K through June 2026 at a 5.9 annualized Sharpe, green on 88% of trading days.
Research
My senior thesis, advised by Dr. David van Dijk, built an evaluation framework for whether language models can predict human survey responses, then used an ablation to separate behavior-learning from format-learning. I've also written up a comparison of robust optimization methods under adversarial data corruption, and earlier did condensed-matter physics research, developing an algorithm to extract superconducting gaps from photoemission spectra (2nd-place poster at a Berkeley Advanced Light Source meeting).
Earlier
Before Axis I was a junior quant strategist at Akuna Capital (Aug–Oct 2025) and a quant trading intern at Virtu Financial (summer 2023). In 2022, I built and shipped Convo, a mobile social app that reached 500+ users.
Before college I was a five-time AIME qualifier, reached USACO Gold, and was a USA Physics Olympiad Silver medalist.