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Moran Cerf

Moran Cerf is an Israeli-born-raised neuroscientist and business professor known for research on brain recordings, decision making and neuroscience in marketing.

born 1977Single neuron recording in humansResearch on recording dreamsNeuroscience in marketingWinning The Moth GrandSLAM

Born: 16 March 1977, Paris
Occupation: professor, neuroscientist
Education: California Institute of Technology, Tel Aviv University

Moran Cerf was born in 1977 in Paris

Moran Cerf was born in Paris in 1977 to a Jewish family and grew up in Israel. As a child he studied at the Israeli School of Arts and appeared on Israeli children's television. He started programming young and took part in hacker communities.

He earned a bachelor's degree in physics and a master's degree in philosophy at Tel Aviv University. In 2002 he received the Presidential Scholarship while working toward a PhD in philosophy. In 2005 he moved to neuroscience and finished a PhD at Caltech in 2009, under Christof Koch.

During his studies he worked as a white hat hacker in Israel, running penetration tests for banks and government bodies. At Caltech he worked on recording single neurons in awake humans through implanted electrodes. He then spent 3 years at NYU studying what makes content engaging.

In 2014 he became a professor at the Kellogg School of Management, teaching business and neuroscience. In 2016 he joined the MIT Media Lab as a visiting professor and began work on recording dreams. He founded Think-Alike and B-Cube, hosts PopTech, and advises films and TV series on science.