Fifteen New Professors (Plus One) at Bocconi in September
If the recruitment on the international job market was a grape harvest, this year's would be deemed exceptional for both quantity and quality. The fifteen professors who will take office in Bocconi in September are to be added, indeed, to the six who preceded them between February and April. In seven cases out of 21, an unprecedented share, they are Full Professors, in many cases from prestigious foreign universities, and ten of the new hires are non-Italian.
"Bocconi's attractiveness is growing," says Francesco Billari, the Dean of the Faculty. "Some of the new professors come from universities hard to leave, such as Oxford or the London School of Economics, and many of the young assistants had also received offers from prestigious European and American universities".
Billari himself, back to Bocconi at the beginning of 2017, and David Stuckler, one of the Full professors who took service in April, come from Oxford. Gianmarco Ottaviano, who had taught at Bocconi, returns after six years at the London School of Economics to continue his research on international trade, multinational enterprises, migrations and their effects in the target countries.
Two new Full professors are non-Italian: Lanny Martin, from Rice University in Houston, Texas, and Dovev Lavie, from Technion in Haifa, Israel. The first studies the workings of democracies, with particular attention to Europe; the second studies business alliances and the dilemma between exploration and exploitation.
In February, three more Full professors entered Bocconi: Riccardo Zecchina, Antonio Lijoi and Stefano Rossi.
"The influx of high-level professors is the result of Bocconi's credibility and constant commitment," Billari continues. "Foreign professors have, over the last few years, observed our internationalization process and adhered to our project."
After the arrival of Carlo Baldassi and Pamela Giustinelli in the first part of the year, the new Assistant Professors stand out for the level of the doctoral schools they come from (Harvard, Berkeley, Oxford, New York University and London School of Economics among the others) and often for an interdisciplinary approach. Patrick Choi makes use of marketing, statistics and machine learning tools to reach interesting conclusions about our consumer behavior. Livio Di Lonardo has been able to integrate two different research fields and studies how the relationship between voters and politicians may influence anti-terrorism policies. Daniele Durante could be defined "a date scientist who loves to play in other people's backyard" because of his ability to make statistics interact with other sciences. Cédric Gutierrez's scientific interests are at the intersection of behavioral decision-making, entrepreneurship and strategy. The adoption of a historical perspective in the study of different aspects of the economy is a trait Sara Lowes and Mara Squicciarini have in common.
There also specialists. Prajakta Desai studies the relevance of accounting information for the functioning of the financial markets. Miaomiao Dong and Satoshi Fukuda deal with game theory. Basile Grassi, a French economist, applies math to the study of economic interactions. Nicola Limodio studies the banking system of emerging countries, a topic often overlooked in favor of research about microcredit. Cristoph Wolf studies the functioning of incentives within the teams.
"The academic job market shows the first consequences of Brexit," Billari observes. "British universities suffer aggressive competition from the best European institutions, including Bocconi. In our case a further element of strength is the growing attractiveness of Milan".
Beyond the new arrivals into the University's faculty, the recruitment of Macroeconomist Francesco Daveri at SDA Bocconi School of management also has to be recorded. He will cover the new position of Professor of Practice a figure that aims to be a junction between the worlds of professions, teaching and research. Daveri will be the director of the Full-Time Mba.