The Institute is headed by Prof. Itai Sened, Founding Head, School for Social and Policy Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Tel-Aviv University. Prof. Sened was recently recruited by TAU after serving for 12 years as Director of the Institute for New Institutional Social Sciences at Washington University, St Louis, Missouri, USA, established by economics’ Nobel Laureate Douglass C. North.  From 2004-2007 Prof. Sened also served as Chair of the Department of Political Science at Washington University, during which time the Department rose to 15th place in the US News and World Report rankings. An expert in decision making, institutions, and policy, Prof. Sened has authored or edited five books and written over fifty chapters and articles in peer reviewed journals.