Rate My Professor Agnieszka Tymula

Agnieszka Tymula is a Professor in the School of Economics at the University of Sydney, a position she has held since 2020 following promotions from Lecturer (2013-2015), Senior Lecturer (2016-2017), and Associate Professor (2018-2019). A neuroeconomist, Professor Tymula's research integrates theory and methods from economics, psychology, and neuroscience to examine how individuals make decisions under risk, uncertainty, and time pressure, why they sometimes deviate from rationality, and how biological factors such as brain structure, age, luminance, and thirst influence economic preferences. Her work explores age-related declines in risk tolerance linked to neuroanatomy, prospect theory in gambling behaviors across species, and the heritability of economic preferences. She earned her PhD in Economics from Bocconi University in 2009 and an MA in Economics from the same institution in 2004. Prior to joining the University of Sydney, she served as AXA Post-Doctoral Fellow at New York University's Center for Neuroeconomics (2010-2013) and Visiting Research Fellow at Northwestern University's Economics Department (2006-2008).

Professor Tymula has authored influential publications, including 'Neuroanatomy accounts for age-related changes in risk preferences' (Nature Communications, 2016), 'Thirst-dependent risk preferences in monkeys identify a primitive form of wealth' (PNAS, 2013), 'Dynamic prospect theory: Two core decision theories coexist in the gambling behavior of monkeys and humans' (Science Advances, 2023), 'Neuroanatomy Predicts Individual Risk Attitudes' (Journal of Neuroscience, 2014), and 'Let the sunshine in? The effects of luminance on economic preferences and rationality' (PLOS ONE, 2017). She has received major awards such as the 2025 Young Economist Award from the Economic Society of Australia, the 2017 Society for Neuroeconomics Early Career Award for Contributions towards the Understanding of Decision-Making, and the 2015 Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Professor Tymula has secured over $34 million in competitive research funding and holds key leadership positions, including Node Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course (University of Sydney Node), Director of the University of Sydney Experimental Economics Lab, President and Board Member of the Society for Neuroeconomics, Executive Committee Member of the Economic Science Association, Editorial Board Member of Experimental Economics, and Co-Director of the Neuroeconomics Summer School. Her contributions advance neuroeconomics and behavioral economics fields.