Professor Bossaerts’ unique work has studied how the brain makes decisions, in part by using brain scanners to examine what is going through a person’s mind when they are presented with complex decisions, thereby helping establish the novel fields of neuroeconomics and decision neuroscience.
The Leverhulme International Professorship will fully fund his move to the University of Cambridge, where he will continue his pioneering work into controlled experimentation in the study of financial markets, the use of decision and game theory in cognitive neuroscience, and computer science to investigate human and market behaviour in complex situations, where there is uncertainty of both strategic risks, and what are called ‘risks created by nature’, over which the decision-maker has no control, even if the person making that choice believes otherwise.
“I am delighted to take up this position within the Faculty of Economics,” says Professor Bossaerts. “It is a wonderful opportunity to be at such a venerable seat of learning. I am looking forward to the extraordinary opportunities that I am presented with, by combining the enormous strengths of economics, neuroscience and computer science at Cambridge, in order to carry on my research into human decision-making.”
Professor Leonardo Felli, Chair of the Faculty of Economics, commented: “I am delighted to welcome Professor Bossaerts to the Faculty. His research, particularly in the neurobiological foundations of decision and game theory, has been outstanding, and he will play a great contribution within the University of Cambridge to building on the success we have enjoyed.”
Professor Bossaerts’ research has been published in top neuroscience and general science journals and he pioneered the publication of ‘decision neuroscience in finance’ in the Journal of Finance. His appointment and the grant funding will give him access to the brain scanners at Addenbrooke’s internationally renowned teaching hospital and research centre.
Leverhulme International Professors will contribute significantly to the university’s strategic aims and objectives, reshaping an existing area or field of study, or branching out into new areas or disciplines.
They are awarded to help maintain the UK’s international standing as a desirable research destination that is open to talented individuals from all countries, and to enable universities seeking to recruit excellent research leaders of any nationality, currently working outside the UK, in order to fill strategically important positions in this country.
The Leverhulme Trust has provided grants and scholarships for research and education since 1925 and today is one of the largest all-subject providers of research funding in the UK.
Professor Bossaerts will start at the University of Cambridge in Autumn 2022.
For more information about the Leverhulme Trust, please visit www.leverhulme.ac.uk and follow the Trust on Twitter @LeverhulmeTrust
