Jehyeok Yeon

Oh, hey there! I’m Jehyeok Yeon, an incoming PhD student with a focus on building intelligent systems that are both technically robust and socially responsible. I was previously at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where I was previously advised by Professor Gagandeep Singh at the FOCAL Lab. During Spring and Summer 2026 I’ll be working with Maksym Andriushchenko at the AI Safety and Alignment group at the ELLIS Institute Tübingen and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems.

My research focuses on trustworthy and explainable AI. I’m interested in how we can design systems, particularly autonomous agents, that make decisions while remaining predictable, safe, and aligned with human intent. In particular, I explore how we can formalize and evaluate agency in AI systems. More broadly, I’m interested in the theoretical foundations of AI behavior and how these can be strengthened and/or exploited.

Outside of research, I care a lot about writing, both creative and academic, and how it shapes the way we think. I spend a lot of time walking and thinking through ideas, and I try to catch theatre performances whenever I can. There’s something powerful about live storytelling that reminds me why I study intelligence in the first place.

The fastest way to reach me is through tommy8289@gmail.com. Feel free to reach out if you have any interesting ideas to throw around!