Titus Galama

Titus Galama, Ph.D., MBA, is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Southern California’s (USC) Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research (CESR) and at USC’s Economics Department, Director of the CESR Center for the Study of Human Capital (CSHC), Associate Professor of Economics at the School of Business and Economics (SBE), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and  Research Fellow at the Tinbergen Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Titus is an award-winning astrophysicist who turned to business/management then policy analysis, economics and social-science genetics. Titus Galama was awarded an M.Sc. in Physics in 1995 (cum laude) and a Ph.D. in Astrophysics in 1999 (cum laude) from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, an MBA in 2003 from INSEAD, France / Singapore and a Ph.D. in Economics in 2011 from the University of Tilburg, The Netherlands. He has been at the forefront of several breakthrough discoveries in astrophysics, two of which were considered the 5th and 10th most significant scientific discoveries (in all science fields) of 1997 and 1999, respectively, by Sciencemagazine. After completion of his thesis in astrophysics he worked as a Fairchild Postdoctoral Prize Fellow at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, U.S.A. He has authored six book chapters and 70 peer-reviewed scientific publications, many in top scientific journals (e.g., six papers [three first-author] in Nature). His publications are highly cited (with ~ 14,500 life-time citations and an h-index of ~ 55).

Following his career in astrophysics, he obtained an MBA from INSEAD at the Singapore and French campuses, and subsequently joined L.E.K Consulting, a global strategy-consulting firm, as a Senior Consultant in the Los Angeles office. Titus joined the RAND Corporation in 2006, USC’s CESR in 2013 and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in 2018.

Titus is Principal Investigator (PI) on a National Institute of Aging (NIA) research grant (R01 AG055654; jointly with Dr. Faul, $4.3 million), focussed on identifying modifiable aspects of gene-by-environment interplay in later-life cognitive decline (2017-2022). He is also PI on a personal grant (VIDI) of the Netherlands Science Foundation (NWO; ~ $1 million; 11/2018-10/2023) and on a recent high-priority R56 grant (NIH; $860,000), to study the role of genetics and its interaction with environments in risky health behaviors. He was PI on an NIA grant aimed at better understanding the relationship between health and socioeconomic status groups (R01; $ 2,500,000; 2010) and recipient of an NIA Independent Scientist Award aimed at improving understanding of disparities in health between education groups (K02; $870,000; 2012).

Ph.D. Economics, University of Tilburg, The Netherlands, 07/2011
M.B.A. Business, INSEAD Singapore/Paris, 07/2003
Ph.D. Astrophysics, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 12/1999
M.S. Physics, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 12/1995

• Senior Economist, USC Center for Economic and Social Research, 03/2013-present
• Fairchild Postdoctoral Prize Fellow in Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, 1999-2002
• Professor, Pardee RAND Graduate School, 2012
• Economist, RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, 2006-2013
• Senior Policy Analyst, RAND Europe, The Netherlands, 2006-2006
• Senior Strategy Consultant, L.E.K. Consulting, Los Angeles, 2003-2005
• Fairchild Postdoctoral Prize Fellow in Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, 1999-2002

• Principal Investigator (jointly with Dr. Faul), NIA research grant (R01 AG079554) “Genotyping the Understanding America Study to generate novel opportunities for research on cognitive functioning and dementia”: $12,189,405 (2023-2028)
• Lead (jointly with von Hinke), Marie Sklodowska-Curie Doctoral Network grant to set up a European Social Science Genetics Network (ESSGN) with 8 Leading European and UK Universities and several policy and policy research institutions, to train 13 PhD students and to establish the ESSGN: Euro ~ 3.4 million (2022-2027).
• Standing member NIH Social Science and Population Studies Review Panel A (2020-2024)
• Principal Investigator, NIA research grant (R56 AG058726) “Identifying gene-byenvironment interplay in health behavior”: $841,902 (2020-2022)
• Principal Investigator, Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) Vidi grant, Euro 840,000 to start research group in geno-economics at VU University, Amsterdam (2018-2023)
• Principal Investigator, NIA research grant (RF1 AG055654; jointly with Dr. Faul) “Identifying modifiable aspects of gene-by-environment interplay in later-life cognitive decline”: $3,959,935 (2017-2022); Admin supplement $328,987 (2018-2019)
• Independent Scientist (K02 AG042452) award “Human capital, health and longevity: explaining the health gradient”, NIA: $870,000 (2012-2017)
• Principal Investigator, NIA research grant (R01 AG037398) “From understanding to reducing health disparities: a model-based evaluation”: $2,500,000 (2010-2017)
• INSEAD Elmar Schulte Diversity Scholarship (2003)
• European Commission’s (Research Directorate General) Descartes Prize (2002)
• ‘Vernieuwingsimpuls’ Award: €800,000 awarded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) to start research group at the U. of Amsterdam; declined (2001)
• Christiaan Huygens Award: €9,000 awarded by the Minister of Education, Culture and Sciences on behalf of the Dutch Royal Academy of Sciences for the most outstanding thesis in astrophysics and the space sciences (2000)
• Fairchild Postdoctoral Prize Fellowship ($150,000). Accepted this position and declined two other prize fellowships: the Hubble and Chandra Prize Fellowships (each $150,000; 1999).
• Received Ph.D. degree in astrophysics with distinction (cum laude; top 2%, 1999)
• Received M.Sc. degree with distinction (cum laude; top 5%, 1995)