ABOUT THE AUTHOR

SANDRA MATZ was born and raised in a small village in the southwest corner of Germany. After receiving her Bachelor of Science in psychology at the University of Freiburg and her PhD from the University of Cambridge, Matz joined Columbia Business School as a professor of business at the age of twenty-seven. She currently serves as the codirector of both the Leadership Lab and the Center for Advanced Technology and Human Performance.

As a computational social scientist with a background in psychology and computer science, Matz studies human behavior by uncovering the hidden relationships between our digital footprints and our inner mental lives. Her goal is to make data relatable and help individuals, businesses, and policymakers use data in more-effective and ethical ways.

Over the last ten years she has published more than fifty academic papers in the world’s leading peer-reviewed journals, and her work has frequently been covered by many major news outlets, including the Economist, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Business Insider. In addition, Matz has shared her findings with business leaders, policymakers, and the broader public through op-eds, keynote speeches, podcasts, TV appearances, and consulting work.

Matz has won numerous awards for her research and teaching, including the SAGE Early Career Trajectory Award for social and personality psychologists; Poets and Quants’ Best 40-Under-40 MBA professors; Capital magazine’s Young Elite Top 40 Under 40; World Frontiers Forum Young Pioneers; Pacific Standard magazine’s Top 30 Thinkers Under 30; and DataIQ’s 100 Most Influential People in Data.

She lives in New York City with her husband, Moran Cerf, and her son, Ben Cerf.