I study how humans and machines can perceive faces and shapes in general. In particular, I choose to focus on statistical shape models and the 3D Morphable Models as generative representation since they naturally disentangle the underlying variables. In combination with computer graphics we simulate the image formation process and approach the inverse problem in an analysis-by-synthesis manner. I'm currently a postdoctoral associate in Josh Tenenbaum's Computational Cognitive Science Lab at the Departement of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT and the Center for Brains, Minds and Machines (CBMM). Before joining Josh's lab, I researched joint statistical shape and attribute modeling with Polina Golland's group at MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Lab as a postdoctoral fellow. I did my PhD on facial image annotation and interpretation in unconstrained images in the Graphics and Vision Research Group at the University of Basel. Before my doctorate I obtained my M.Sc. and B.Sc. in Computer Science at the University of Basel and an upper secondary school teaching Diploma at the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland.