Paul W. Glimcher (born November 3, 1961) is an American neuroeconomist, neuroscientist, psychologist, economist, scholar, and entrepreneur.
He is one of the foremost researchers in the study of human behavior and decision-making, and is known for his central role in founding and developing the field of neuroeconomics.
He is also the founder of the HUMAN Project, a large-scale interdisciplinary longitudinal study, and Datacubed Health, a start-up company focused on Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) technologies in the healthcare industry and biomedical/behavioral research domain.
Working with Professor David Sparks (University of Pennsylvania) researching the brainstem and mesencephalic nuclei that control eye rotations, Glimcher uncovered evidence that structures participating in the execution of saccadic eye movements might be involved in planning those movements as well.
His work also advanced the notion of subjective value, which is widely identified as the neurobiological correlate of economic utility.
The field of neuroeconomics began to develop in the late 1990s as a natural outgrowth of the maturation of many different disciplines––such as neuroscience, psychology, and economics––happening all at once.
[8] He co-authored what is often referred to as the first academic paper in neuroeconomics, with American neurobiologist, Michael Platt, which was published in the journal Nature in 1999.
Glimcher's research aims to describe the neural events that underlie behavioral decision-making using tools from neuroscience, psychology, and economics.
[14] His most notable contributions are in: the development of the field of neuroeconomics; studies of dopamine and reinforcement learning; elucidating the neurobiological basis of human preferences; how people make intertemporal choices; and pioneering the application of "normalized representation" to decision-making.
In 1999, with neuroscientist, Michael Platt, Glimcher was the first to demonstrate a utility-like value signal in the brain of a living creature.
[9] In 2004, with Michael Dorris, he published the first experimental test of the hypothesis that the Nash Equilibrium in strategic games specifies an internal representation of value in the peer-reviewed journal Neuron.
[23] Glimcher is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the McKnight, Whitehall, Klingenstein, and McDonnell Foundations, as well as a member of the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives.
His 2009 textbook on neuroeconomics received the American Association of Publishers PROSE Award for Excellence in the Social Sciences.
[citation needed] Glimcher's work has also been featured in the popular press such as Time,[27] Newsweek,[28] The Los Angeles Times,[29] National Public Radio,[30] BBC,[31] Le Monde,[32] Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung,[33] Quanta Magazine,[34] New York Magazine,[13] Science,[35] NewScientist,[36] Fast Company,[37] Vox,[38] and The Atlantic's CityLab.