Dr. Yevgeny Tsodikovich
Department of Economics, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
My life before BGU:
I was born in the Soviet Union (now Mykolaiv, Ukraine) and immigrated to Holon when I was 4 years old. I completed high school at the Tel Aviv Engineering High School, while at the same time pursuing a bachelor's degree in mathematics at the Open University. After high school, I enrolled at Tel Aviv University, where I completed a second bachelor's degree in physics and electrical engineering as part of the IDF's Academic Reserves program. During my military service, I completed a master's degree in astrophysics. After completing my service, I entered the field of game theory and completed a PhD in mathematics at Tel Aviv University. From there, I continued with a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Economics at Aix-Marseille University, followed by another postdoc at Bar-Ilan University.
Why BGU?
The Department of Economics has excellent researchers working on fascinating topics in game theory and economic theory, and I’m thrilled to join and collaborate with them. It also helped that they were the only ones who offered me a position.
My research:
I study the spread of public opinion and social learning within networks. For example, if I want to advertise a particular product, should I invest heavily in promotion through a few influencers, or would it be better to try to generate a viral trend by promoting it cheaply through many less-connected individuals? This leads to several extensions and follow-up questions, such as how the answer changes depending on the structure of the network, or what is the "right" price to pay someone based on their position in the social network.
Something that doesn’t appear on my CV:
My main hobby is geocaching. This is a global "treasure hunt" game, with over 3,000,000 geocaches hidden worldwide, and around 2,000 in Israel. When I travel abroad, instead of using guidebooks, I navigate from geocache to geocache, leading me to all the major attractions (and some more obscure spots).
In brief:
- Pilates or spinning? Running, cycling, and a bit of swimming. As long as it’s outdoors and not in a gym.
- Instant coffee or espresso? Espresso. And lots of it.
- Hiking or spa? Hiking. No geocaches to be found at the spa.
- City or countryside? After three years in rural Provence, definitely the countryside.
- Text or voice message? Text. The ability to see the message on my smartwatch and choose to ignore it without the other person knowing is priceless.
- Instagram or TikTok? Instagram, Twitter, Facebook. Each one reflects a different facet of my personality.
