Maaneli (Max) Derakhshani is a postdoctoral researcher currently based at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. He completed his Ph.D. in the Foundations of Physics at Universiteit Utrecht, and works in the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Gravity.

Maaneli has published his research in journals such as Physics Letters A, Journal of Physics, Pure and Applied Mathematics Quarterly, Entropy, and Symmetry, and has served as an anonymous referee for Physical Review A, Foundations of Physics, Fluctuations and Noise Letters, Studies in the History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, and Cambridge University Press; his work has also been covered in Science, New Scientist, EurekaAlert!, Phys.org, and the Clubhouse show It's About Time!, among other media outlets.

He is a recipient of grants from the John Templeton Foundation and Foundational Questions Institute and received the top prize for the John Templeton Foundation's "Ideas Challenge" in 2020. He is also a member of the Foundational Questions Institute and fellow of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics.

Outside of physics, Maaneli has contributed a philosophical essay, “Another Thing in This Universe that Cannot Be an Illusion,” to the volume, Sam Harris: Critical Responses, and will contribute an essay to the upcoming volume, Steven Pinker: Critical Responses.

Maaneli is also a member of the Manhattan Institute and Adam Smith Society therein, and works with them to advocate for free markets and limited government. His shift to a more sensible view about climate change was initiated by reading Thomas Gale Moore's, Climate of Fear: Why We Shouldn't Worry About Global Warming, a book enthusiastically endorsed by his favorite economist, Milton Friedman, for making a compelling case that global warming will most likely bring net benefits to the general public.