Colin Camerer

Colin Camerer is the Robert Kirby Professor of Behavioral Economics at Caltech and holds the T&C Chen Center for Social and Decision Neuroscience Leadership Chair. He joined Caltech in 1994 after academic positions at Northwestern, Pennsylvania State University, and the University of Chicago.

• B.A., Johns Hopkins University (1976)
• M.B.A., University of Chicago (1979)
• Ph.D., University of Chicago (1981)

His research bridges behavioral economics and social neuroscience, focusing on neural computations in economic/social decisions, strategic interactions, and market trading. Key projects include fMRI studies on self-control, financial loss regulation, and stock market bubbles.

Recent publications emphasize replicability in behavioral experiments, habit formation through neural autopilot mechanisms, and the interplay of visual salience and decision-making. His work integrates neuroimaging, eyetracking, and machine learning to decode human behavior.

Scientific Honors

• MacArthur Fellow (2013)
• American Academy of Arts and Sciences Member
• Former President, Economic Science Association
• Former President, Society for Neuroeconomics

As Director of the T&C Chen Center since 2017, he leads interdisciplinary research on decision neuroscience. His group's methodological innovations include transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and lesion studies to probe causality in social behaviors.