Cluster member Axel Ockenfels, Professor of Economics at the University of Cologne, has been appointed a member of the Leopoldina in the section “Economics and Empirical Social Sciences”.
The Leopoldina unites researchers from more than 30 countries with outstanding expertise in their respective fields. The election is considered one of the highest honors for scientists.
“Being appointed as a member of the Leopoldina is a great honor and I am very much looking forward to working together in science and policy advice,” says Ockenfels.
Ockenfels studied Economics at the University of Bonn and gratuated under game theorist, mathematician and Nobel laureate Reinhard Selten. In 1998, Ockenfels received his doctorate at the University of Magdeburg, where he habilitated in Economics in 2002. He has been a Professor at the University of Cologne since July 2003.
His research focuses on game theory, behavioral economics, and market design. He is is interested in the design, testing and implementation of institutions, markets and decision architectures. Ockenfels received the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the German Research Foundation in 2005 for his experimental economic research on human behavior in economic decision-making. In 2018, he was awarded the ERC Advanced Grant of the European Research Council, which is considered the most important funding award in European research.