Fuat Balci

Biography

Dr. Fuat Balcı received his Ph.D degree in Cognitive Psychology (2007) and a graduate certificate in Cognitive Science from Rutgers University. Following his doctoral studies, he served as the head of an R&D group in a pharmaceutical company (PsychoGenics, Inc., USA). He continued his academic career as a post-doctoral researcher at Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University (2008-2010). He started serving as an assistant professor of Psychology at Koç University and obtained an associate professorship in 2014. He currently serves as the Associate Dean of the College of Social Sciences and Humanities at Koç University. Dr. Balcı has directed multiple internationally and nationally funded projects and received a number of highly prestigious awards; e.g. 2015 Outstanding Young Scientist Award by the Turkish Academy of Sciences, 2014 Incentive Award from TÜBİTAK, and 2013 Young Scientist Award by the Science Academy, Turkey. He has also been honored as a Young Scientist by the World Economic Forum in 2013. Dr. Balcı is the co-editor in chief of the International Journal of Comparative Psychology and he is on the editorial board of various journals.

He is primarily interested in the study of time perception and decision making from both empirical and theoretical perspectives. He works on computational models of these fundamental cognitive processes, tests model-based predictions regarding choice behavior in temporal and perceptual decision-making, and investigates the neural mechanisms that underlie these functions in both humans and animals. His current projects include the study of the neural basis of speed-accuracy tradeoffs (decision threshold setting) in humans using rTMS, study of how decision-making and timing functions are affected in aging (in animal models) and neuropathology (in humans and animal models) as well as the neurobiological correlates of these behavioral alterations in animal models, and the development of computational models of interval timing and temporal decision-making.