Moran Cerf

Neuroscientist

Moran Cerf is a neuroscientist and business professor at the Kellogg School of Management and the neuroscience program at Northwestern University. He is also a member of the institute on complex systems (‘NICO’) and the Alfred P. Sloan professor at the American Film Institute (‘AFI’).

His academic research uses methods from neuroscience to understand the underlying mechanisms of our psychology, behavior change, emotion, decision making, and dreams.

His works address questions such as: "How are conscious percepts formed in the brain?", "How can we control our emotions?" and “How the brain judges content as engaging?"

Prof. Cerf holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience (Caltech), an MA in Philosophy (Tel-Aviv University), and a B.Sc. in Physics (Tel-Aviv University).

He holds multiple patents and has mentored over 50 students and published over 70 academic papers in journals such as Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and the Journal of Neuroscience, as well as popular science journals such as Scientific American Mind, Wired, New Scientist and more. Prof. Cerf’s work has been portrayed in numerous media and cultural outlets such as CNN, BBC, Bloomberg, NPR, Time, MSNBC, and dozens of others. He has been featured in venues such as the World Economic Forum, the Venice Art Biennial, and China's Art, Science and Technology Association gathering, and has contributed to magazines such as Forbes, The Atlantic, Inc., and others.

He has made much of his research accessible to the general public via his talks at PopTech, TED, TEDx, Google Zeitgeist, DLD, and similar venues, and via his appearances on shows such as Netflix Explained, PBS NOVA, Curiosity Stream's "Psychology of Con Artists", and many more, garnering millions of views and a large following.

Additionally, he is the beneficiary of several awards and grants for his work, including the Carnegie Corporation Award, the Templeton Foundation “Extraordinary Minds” award, and the prestigious Presidential scholarship for excellence. He was recently named one of the "40 leading professors below 40".

Prior to his academic career, Prof. Cerf spent nearly a decade in industry, holding positions in cyber-security (as a hacker), pharmaceutical, telecom, fashion, software development, and innovations research. Currently, Prof. Cerf is on the board of a number of neuro-tech companies (Nervanix, X-Trodes, VR Americas, BestFit, and more) and is the Co-founder of ThinkAlike. He is also the founder of the non-profit organization B-Cube which applies neuroscience to help society.

Prof. Cerf is a consultant to various Hollywood films and TV shows, such as CBS' “Bull” and “Limitless”, USA Network's “Falling Water”, and others.

Most importantly, he is right-handed.