Paul W. Glimcher, Ph.D.Nobel Conference 47

Julius Silver Professor of Neural Science, Economics, and Psychology, Center for Neural Science, and Director, Center for Neuroeconomics, New York University

Working with Professor David Sparks at the University of Pennsylvania in the early ’90s researching the brainstem and those nuclei that control eye rotations, Paul Glimcher uncovered evidence that structures participating in the execution of saccadic eye movements might be involved in planning those movements as well. Consequently, his lab has focused on the identification and characterization of signals that intervene between the neural processes that engage in sensory decoding and those that engage in movement generations. These are the signals that must, in principle, underlie decision-making. Glimcher and his lab study these processes using tools drawn from the fields of neuroscience, economics, and psychology, with methodologies ranging from single-neuron electrophysiology to game theory.

Glimcher, a graduate of Princeton University (A.B. in neuroscience, 1983), earned his Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, in 1989. He worked in the Department of Psychology at Penn as an NRSA Postdoctoral Research Fellow before accepting a position with the Center for Neural Science at New York University in 1994. Glimcher is one of the founders of the field of neuroeconomics. In 2005 he was named director of the Center for Neuroeconomics at NYU, and in 2007 he attained the rank of professor of neural science, economics, and psychology. He is the founding president (1994–95) of the Society for Neuroeconomics.

Glimcher’s book, Decisions, Uncertainty and the Brain (MIT Press, 2003), was honored as the American Association of Publishers’ Medical Science Book of the Year.