Professorships

Endowed professorships are an important instrument for attracting excellent talent and new expertise to Zurich and for promoting research and teaching in a targeted manner. Inspiring professors have an important effect: They motivate students and doctoral students for their field. They build a sustainable network within the international scientific community and position themselves as experts for the media. Thus, the creation and funding of an endowed professorship guarantees a sustainable impact.

Together for a sustainable impact

Ingvild Almås

Larsson-Rosenquist Foundation Professor of Child and Youth Development with a focus on breastfeeding
Larsson-Rosenquist Foundation (LRF) Center for Economics of Breastfeeding
Phone: +41 44 634 37 80
ingvild.almas@econ.uzh.ch

Ingvild Almås was Professor of Economics at IIES Stockholm before joining us at the LRF Centre for Economics of Breastfeeding at the University of Zurich. Her research focuses on economic inequality, household decision-making and child development. She leads the large-scale research programme Kizazi Kijacho and was awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant.

Personal website

Ronak Jain

Assistant Professorship for Economics of Development and Child Welfare, supported by UNICEF Switzerland
Phone: +41 44 634 63 76
ronak.jain@econ.uzh.ch

Ronak Jain’s research combines insights from behavioral economics with topics in development economics. She examines, for example, how street vendors in India deliberately make use of social expectations to increase their sales, or how false beliefs about social norms can hinder communication within communities. She also analyzes how access to mobile internet affects students’ academic performance around the world. Her work is based on field experiments and real-world data, aiming to better understand how people make decisions in informal labor markets and in the context of education.

Personal website

Thomas Graeber

NOMIS Associate Professor of Cognitive and Neuroeconomics
Phone: +41 44 634 71 63
thomas.graeber@econ.uzh.ch

As an empirical behavioral and experimental economist, Thomas Graeber studies why people sometimes make economic decisions that don’t match what traditional theories predict. His research focuses on understanding how thinking processes like attention, memory, and the ability to process information influence our behavior. Using experiments and real-world data, he explores why people overlook certain information, how they deal with complex situations, and why they don’t always act rationally. His goal is to better understand the economic consequences of these behaviors.

Personal website

This is how you can support our professorships

Endowed professorships enable us to bring excellent talent and new expertise to Zurich and to provide targeted support for research and teaching. Contribute with your donation so that these professorships can continue their research and achieve their goals. Together we have the opportunity to make a difference and achieve many things.

Professorships