The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the U.S.’s highest civilian honor, recognizing individuals who have made an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the U.S., world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.

The awards will be presented at the White House later this year.

“Daniel Kahneman is a pioneering scholar of psychology. After escaping Nazi occupation [in France] in World War II, Dr. Kahneman immigrated to Israel, where he served in the Israel Defense Forces and trained as a psychologist. Alongside Amos Tversky, he applied cognitive psychology to economic analysis, laying the foundation for a new field of research and earning the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002. He is currently a professor at Princeton University,” the White House’s statement said.

Born in Tel Aviv in 1934, Kahneman spent his childhood years in Paris. After his family escaped the Nazis, he immigrated to Israel in 1948. Kahneman is professor emeritus at Princeton University’s Department of Psychology and Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, as well as a fellow at Hebrew University and a Gallup Senior Scientist. He is considered one of the world’s foremost researchers in the fields of the psychology of judgment and decision-making, behavioral economics and hedonic psychology.

In 2011, Kahneman was ranked 71 on Foreign Policy magazine’s list of top 100 global thinkers. His book, “Thinking, Fast and Slow,” which summarizes much of his research, was published later that year to great critical acclaim. In both 2011 and 2012, he was named as one of Bloomberg’s 50 most influential people in global finance.

Kahneman, who is 2009 was awarded an honorary doctorate from the department of Economics at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, is the recipient of several international awards, including the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics for his work in Prospect theory, the 2007 American Psychological Association’s Award for Outstanding Lifetime Contributions to Psychology, the 2011 Talcott Parsons Prize by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the 2012 National Academy of Sciences Communication Award, which he won for his book.

The Presidential Medal of Freedom was established by U.S. President Harry Truman in 1945 to recognize notable service in war. In 1963, President John F. Kennedy reintroduced it as an honor for distinguished civilian service in peacetime. President Shimon Peres was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in June 2012.

View original Israel Hayom publication at: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=11275