Stefan Bode
Visiting Professor of Psychology
Affiliation: NYU Abu Dhabi
Education: Dipl .Psychology University Goettingen; PhD University Leipzig
Research Areas: Cognitive psychology; decision-making; information-seeking; volition; behavior change
Stefan Bode studied psychology at the University of Goettingen, Germany, and the University of Zurich, Switzerland. Subsequently, he worked at the University Clinic Goettingen in medical psychology. He received his PhD in psychology/cognitive neuroscience from the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences Leipzig, University of Leipzig, Germany, in 2010. Bode then moved to Melbourne, Australia, and worked at the Florey Neuroscience Institutes, before taking up a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Melbourne in 2011. In 2014, he was awarded the Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA) Fellowship. In 2017, Bode obtained the 'Habilitation' (Professor rank) from the University of Cologne, Germany, and the venia legendi in Psychology. In 2019, he was promoted to Associate Professor, and in 2024 to Full Professor.
Until 2024, Bode was the Head of the Decision Neuroscience Laboratory, and he was also the former Director of the Decision Science Hub (2018-2022) at the University of Melbourne. He further served as the Ambassador for German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD; 2020-2023), as the Academic Lead of a bi-national PhD program, and on the executive committee of the Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society (ACNS).
Bode's research focuses on the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying change-of-mind decisions, health decisions, and voluntary decision-making, as well as decision errors and human information-seeking. His research has been funded by the Australian Research Council, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the John Templeton Foundation, and many more. His work has been published in +100 research articles in leading international journals.