Professor Tobias Preis
Professor of Behavioural Science & Finance
Behavioural Sciences Group

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Phone
02476528422
apartment Office 3.116

Biography

Tobias Preis is Professor of Behavioural Science and Finance at the University of Warwick and a Fellow of The Alan Turing Institute, the UK's national institute for data science and artificial intelligence. Together with his colleague Prof. Suzy Moat, he directs the Data Science Lab at Warwick Business School.

His recent research has aimed to analyse and predict real world behaviour with the volumes of data being generated by our interactions with technology, using data from Google, Wikipedia, Twitter, Flickr, Instagram and other sources. Preis' research is frequently featured in the news, by outlets including the BBC, the New York Times, the Financial Times, Science, Nature, Time Magazine, New Scientist and the Guardian.

He has given a range of public talks including presentations at TEDx events in the UK and in Switzerland and he frequently advises governmental and commercial stakeholders around the globe. More details can be found on his website https://www.tobiaspreis.com.

Selected media coverage of his work includes:

  • Economist (2017)
        "Computer analysis of what is scenic may help town planners"
  • Science (2015)
        "Measuring the mobs"
  • BBC (2015)
        "Crowds 'could be counted' with phone and Twitter data"
  • Wall Street Journal (2014)
        "Do Politics-Themed Google Searches Predict Stock Activity?"
  • Financial Times (2013)
        "Google search proves to be new word in stock market prediction"
  • BBC (2013)
        "Google searches predict market moves"
  • Nature (2013)
        "Counting Google searches predicts market movements"
  • New York Times (2013)
        "Google Search Terms Can Predict Stock Market, Study Finds"
  • Guardian (2013)
        "Which countries are the most forward thinking? See it visualised"
  • New Scientist (2012)
        "Online searches for future linked to economic success"
  • Time Magazine (2010)
        "Study: Are Google Searches Affecting the Stock Market?"
  • Science (2010)
        "Can Google Predict the Stock Market?"


  • BBC Click (TV interview, 2015)

  • Fox Business (TV interview, 2013)
  • BBC (TV interview, 2013)

    Research Interests

    Mammoth amounts of data are now being generated through society's extensive interactions with technological systems, automatically documenting collective human behaviour in a previously unimaginable fashion.

    Preis' interdisciplinary research investigates whether data from sources such as Google, Wikipedia, Twitter, Flickr and Instagram can be used to:

  • reduce delays in measurement of human behaviour
  • measure behaviour which previously could not be measured
  • improve predictions of future behaviour


    Together with Suzy Moat and Mark Carrigan, he chaired Europe's first Computational Social Science Conference at the University of Warwick.
    See also his Google Scholar Profile for a list of citations and statistics.