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Research Scientists
Professor Soon Ang (PhD Minnesota) is the Goh Tjoei Kok Distinguished Chair and Professor in Management at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. She is also Executive Director for the Center for Leadership & Cultural Intelligence (CLCI) .
Soon Ang is a recognised world authority in cultural intelligence (CQ), global leadership, and outsourcing. She pioneered and co-authored two foundation books on CQ (Stanford University Press) and co-edited the Handbook of cultural intelligence (ME Sharpe). Her work has significant impact on the field of international education and cross-cultural training and counselling.
Her ideas on CQ have been described as the most cogent, well researched, and comprehensive. She has created and validated a series of multi-media situational judgment tests for assessing and developing CQ for individuals and organisations.
For more information, please visit here.
Associate Professor George Christopoulos (please visit my lab webpage for more info) holds a PhD in Decision Neuroscience from the University of Cambridge (with Wolfram Schultz) and postdoctoral research at Virginia Tech and Baylor College of Medicine (Brooks King-Casas). He is also the co-Director of the Culture Science Innovations, Executive Committee director for the Methods/ Education section for the Academy of Management Org. Neuroscience Group (NEU), member of the Advisory Council for the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture, and collaborator for the UPenn Center for NeuroAesthetics.
In the lab, Associate Professor Christopoulos uses advanced neurobehavioral methods to examine the following questions:
Environmental (Urban) Neuroscience: focusing on the effect of indoor and outdoor spaces, and their architectural characteristics on human performance, health, and happiness. A recent grant examines the effect of soundscaping and sounds on human cognition.
Human learning and decision making (risk and trust), with a focus on cognitive flexibility and computerised training of working adults.
Beauty and aesthetics: deeper beliefs about beauty and how they affect consumption of cosmetics; and how culture and cultural symbols (statues, images, buildings) affect emotions as well aesthetic and other judgments.
Methods: besides traditional methods, employing behavioural methods derived from psychology; computational methods stemming from game theory, learning theory and microeconomics; and biological measurements such as human neuroimaging using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and EEG; and examining virtual reality and wearables.
Besides receiving typical grants (over $1.5m), he has also collaborated and supported by various private companies and multinationals (such as cosmetics companies) to understand how consumers choose and use cosmetics and other products, using implicit and explicit methods.
Associate Professor Christopoulos’ research has been published in leading multidisciplinary and specialised journals (Journal of Neuroscience, PNAS, Building and Environment, Energy Research & Social Science, Journal of Experimental Social psychology, Journal of Environmental Psychology, Journal of Business Ethics etc.).
Associate Professor Krishna Savani is the Provost's Chair in Business and Associate Professor of Leadership, Management, and Organisation at Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU SG). He obtained his PhD in Psychology from Stanford University and has done a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Columbia Business School.
He uses cross-cultural research to provide insights into basic psychological processes. He has conducted extensive research on cultural norms, cultural conditioning, choice, decision making, and policy attitudes.
His research has been published in numerous academic journals, including Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Psychological Science, Journal of Applied Psychology, and Organizational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes.
He is currently as an Associate Editor at the Social and Personality Psychology Compass, and an Editorial Board member at Organizational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Asian Journal of Social Psychology, Frontiers in Cultural Psychology, and Personal Assessment and Decisions.
Dr Savani has been recognised as a Rising Star by the Association for Psychological Science, a leading association of psychological scientists across the world.
He is also the first holder of the Nanyang Assistant Professorship in the business school, a university fellowship designed to attract exceptional young academics throughout the world to work at NTU. For more information, please visit here.
Zou Xi is an Associate Professor of Leadership, Management, and Organisation at Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University. She obtained her PhD with Distinction in Organisational Behaviour, from Columbia Business School in the United States.
Her research draws on social psychology to understand how culture and motivation shape people’s judgments, decision-makings, and behaviours, and the implications for interpersonal dynamics and work performance.
Her work has been published in top management and psychology journals such as Research in Organisational Behaviour, Academy of Management Review, Organisational Behaviour and Human Decision-Making Processes, and Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
She is currently an Associate Editor at Asian Journal of Social Psychology, as well as on several editorial boards such as Journal of Management Studies and Management & Organization Review.
Research Fellows
Alvin Lee is a cognitive neuroscientist with a PhD from the School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia. His PhD research involved the investigation of the neurobiological underpinnings of obsessive-compulsive symptoms, as well as other internalising symptoms, in children and adults. In 2020, Alvin joined Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU SG) as a research fellow. He is currently working on a project examining the psychological effects of soundscape. His research interests include biological psychology, cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, and human factors.
Wang Yan has a Bachelor in Mathematics and Economics, PhD in Economics at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU SG). Wang Yan’s interests lie in experimental and behavioural economics, applied microeconomics, and financial economics.
She explores the research area of the intersection of economics and psychology. In particular, she focuses on the individual choice in various markets by adopting the experimental approach.
Research Staff
Amit Kumar Murmu is a graduate from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur with a Master's degree in Metallurgical & Materials Engineering. Amit has experience of working on software development, machine learning and data analytics problems.
Being from an engineering background and relatively new to the field of psychology, he strives to implement his knowledge of Artificial Intelligence to obtain untrodden results in psychology.
Andrea Low graduated from Sciences Po Paris with a degree in Economics and Sociology, with a year abroad spent at Columbia University.
She is keenly interested in mechanisms and behavioural approaches. She hopes to explore the reasons behind everyday phenomena, and apply economic thinking and statistical methods to explain the quirks of ordinary life.
In her spare time, Andrea enjoys art, cats, and trying new things.
Sylvia Chin graduated from the National University of Singapore with a Bachelor of Social Sciences (First class, Honours) in Psychology. Upon graduation, she joined a Japanese conglomerate in Osaka as a human resources development specialist for two years before returning to continue her research journey.
Sheis broadly interested in bringing her psychology background to explore and understand a wide range of real-world behaviours. Her current research focuses on creativity, emotions and how culture affects behaviours and decision-making.
Her hobbies include volleyball, escape rooms, and befriending neighbourhood cats.
Following her graduation from UB-SIM (in Psychology), Yap Hui Shan worked with a multi-disciplinary research group from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU SG) examining how different psychological and social factors can affect an individual’s functioning in (and their perception of) different spaces.
Her current research interest includes exploring topics related to social psychology, neuropsychology as well as learning more about different analysis methods.
PhD Students
Elizabeth Demissie Degefe is a PhD student in the division of Leadership, Management, and Organisation in Nanyang Business School. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Minnesota with a bachelor's in psychology and minors in statistics and anthropology.
Her research interests primarily relate to culture and diversity within the workplace. Her current projects use machine learning methods to assess cultural differences in workplace dynamics and determine the predictors of prejudice.
Rui Ling Lee is a PhD student at the Division of Leadership, Management & Organisation at Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU SG). She obtained her Bachelor in Arts (Psychology, Summa Cum Laude) from University at Buffalo.
Growing up in a multiracial country, she is interested to examine the role culture plays in individual behaviour and interactions. Her current research projects explore newcomer voice behaviour, and learning and decision making as well.
Sam Yoke Loo, Emma is a PhD student at the IGP-CRADLE, Graduate College, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU SG).
After obtaining her master’s degree in Psychology at the University of Plymouth, Emma worked with several multi-disciplinary research groups from NTU and ETH, and collaborated with industrial research teams, such as Procter & Gamble Co. (SG, JPN, & US), on a broad range of topics, including career development, individual differences, neuromarketing, and financial resilience.
Her research interests include organisational behaviours, career development and decision making, behavioural and experimental designs, quantitative multivariate analysis, and psychometrics.
Yi Huang is a third-year PhD student in the Division of the Leadership, Management & Organisation at the Nanyang Business School at the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU SG).
Before beginning her PhD, she studied international business at the Lingnan (University) College of the Sun Yat-sen University in China.
Her research interests span the broad areas of emotional well-being and the psychology of entrepreneurship.
Zhiyu Feng was a PhD candidate in the Division of Leadership, Management, and Organisation, Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU SG).
His research interests fall into the intersection of three broad research domains: (a) leadership, (b) business and behavioral ethics, and (c) decision making.