Dr Gülbanu Kaptan

Profile

I joined Leeds University Business School in 2014 as a Lecturer in Behavioural Decision Making, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2018. I worked as the Interim Head of the Decision Research Group between February-August 2020. I’m currently the Academic Lead of the LUBS Simitive WAMS project aiming to implement a single faculty-wide common framework and harmonised process for workload allocation, management, monitoring and reporting.

Before joining Leeds University Business School, I was a Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellow for two years in the Department of Social and Decision Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University (USA), and one year at the Centre for Rural Economy at Newcastle University.

My PhD is in Business Administration, in the area of decision, risk, and operations management. My PhD thesis was supported by research grants from Bilkent University Business School (Turkey) and Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University (Israel). It was a theoretical analysis that linked risk beliefs and attitudes to social factors. The two articles in relation to my PhD research were published in ABS4 journal Risk Analysis, and the poster I presented at the Affect, Motivation and Decision Making International Conference (2006) received the Best Poster Award.

My research interests focus on judgement and decision making with special interest in food-related decision making, designing risk (benefit) communications, and  behavioural interventions related to food consumption and waste. I am a former expert member of the European Commission’s Consumer Food Waste Forum that aimed to find solutions and develop tools to help reduce consumer food waste in Europe. I have led and been involved in numerous externally (both UK and international) and internally-funded research projects (listed below), as well as working in research projects as a University Consultant:

External Funding:

--Co-Investigator for the project on Healthy soil, Healthy food, Healthy people (H3) (2023-2026). UKRI Strategic Priorities Fund 

--Principle Investigator for the project on Using citizen science to explore plant breeding and investigate food-chain transparency for novel breeding methods. (2022). UKRI/FSA joint grant https://bit.ly/bbsrc-fsa-citizenscience

--University consultant for the Food Standards Agency’s Kitchen Life-2 project (2021-2023)

--Co-investigator for the project on Reuse to reduce food waste: understand policy barriers preventing food upcycling. In partnership with Leeds City Council. (Nov/22 – July/23)Research England Policy Support Fund .

--Principle Investigator for the project on Capitalising on COVID-19 as a Trigger for Positive Change in Food Waste Behaviour (2020-2022). UKRI/ESRC Grant https://bit.ly/foodwastebehaviour

--Collaborator for the multi-country project on Why people eat in a traditional or modern way, (2017-2020). German Research Foundation.

--Co-Investigator and Co-director for the ESRC Research Seminar Series on Integrating perspectives on consumer perceptions of food safety, nutrition and waste (2014-2017). ESRC Grant. https://bit.ly/esrcfoodseminars

--Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellow for the project on Contamination of food with biological agents: An integrated risk analysis and risk communication approach (2009-2012). EU-FP7 Grant.

Internal Funding:

--Principle Investigator for the project on Successful implementation of gene editing into the UK food system, (2022). Leeds University Business School Impact Leadership Award.

--Principle Investigator for the project on Subconscious and affective determinants of food waste behaviour, (2020). Leeds University Business School Challenge Fund. – *This project is a case study for future LUBS Challenge Fund Applications. See Challenge Fund SharePoint page

--Principle Investigator for the project on Eliciting expert opinion on consumers’ understanding of the interactions between nutrition, food safety, and waste (2015). Leeds University Business School Research Centre Grant

Responsibilities

• Member of the Faculty Research Innovation and Engagement Committee (FRIEC)

Research interests

• Food-related decision making and consumer behaviour on food waste, upcycling food, novel food technologies, healthy eating, and food safety
• Developing risk (benefit) communications, and behaviour change interventions related to food consumption and waste
• Eating behaviour

*I welcome contact from prospective PhD candidates interested in any of the above research topics.

Current Postgraduate Researchers: 

Chenyi Zhu; Can Cheng; Chuyao Kuang; Dr Steffen Hirth ; Dr Kemal Enes 

Qualifications

• PhD Business Administration, Faculty of Business Administration, Bilkent University (Turkey)
• MBA, Baskent University (Turkey)
• MSc and BSc Food Engineering, Middle East Technical University (Turkey)

Professional memberships

• Member of the Society for Risk Analysis
• Member of the European Citizen Science Association
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Student education

I am the Winner of LUBS 2017-18 Partnership awards in the category of Best Feedback - the person who provides invaluable and supportive academic feedback, in both content and delivery method, which helps others to develop and excel in their work. I’m also a nominee for the 2018 and 2019 Partnership Awards in the categories of Positive Impact, Inspirational teaching, and Best Feedback

Postgraduate Teaching (current): 
LUBS5253 Advanced Management Decision Making (Module Leader) 

Postgraduate and Undergraduate Teaching (previous): LUBS55582 Research Methods (Module Leader) 2015-2017; LUBS5202 Risk Perception and Communication (Tutor) 2015-2019; LUBS1785 Introduction to Effective Decision Making (Module Leader) 2014-2019; LUBS 2765 Advanced Management Decision Making (Module Leader) 2014-2019; LUBS3885 Management Decision Making (Lecturer and Tutor) 2014-2018

Research groups and institutes

• Centre for Decision Research

Current postgraduate researchers

• Chenyi Zhu
• Can Cheng