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BiographyÌý

Between 1987-1992 Frank studied his BSc and MSc in , the Netherlands, and obtained a PhD in at the , Germany, in 1995.

After a post-doc period he returned to Utrecht University (UU) where he worked from 1997-2010 as Assistant and Associate Professor in . In 1997 he became co-founder of (UCU), the first residential, Liberal Arts & Sciences college in the Netherlands. As fellow for Physics & Mathematics he was responsible for the Mathematics and Physics curricula at UCU. His interest in Economics started emerging here in the educational collaboration with colleagues from Economics. Multidisciplinary work in education has interested him ever since. In 2005-2008 he was founding secretary of the at UU, encompassing graduate degrees in Astronomy, Chemistry, Computer Sciences, History & Philosophy of Science, Mathematics, and Physics. From 2008-2010 he was member and chair of the Faculty Council of the Sciences Faculty of UU.

In 2010 Frank joined the Department of Economics at University College London as Departmental Tutor. He was a co-founder of the , involved in the setting up of the UCL Bachelors of Arts & Sciences degree and CALT (now Arena) fellow in 2017. Dr WitteÌýis also a research associate of the .

Frank was an academic visitor / visiting fellow at (UK, 2002), the at Imperial College London (2009) and International Visiting Fellow at (US, 2012).Ìý

Stories, Star Wars and Economics

Frank's research interests in the connection between mathematical models and economics and physics narratives is part of a wider interest in the role of narratives, and storytelling as a part of teaching and learning, and of economic and social processes. As part of that he enjoys analysing the stories from the Star Wars universe as narratives about decision-making and human choices. It is also a rich source of material that Frank likes to use in talks about stories, storytelling, and its relevance for various areas of economics, finance and socialÌýsciences, such as during the Annual Symposia of the Personal Finance Society (UK) in November 2018.ÌýInterested? Email Frank atÌýf.witte@ucl.ac.ukÌýto schedule a talk.Ìý

ResearchÌý

Initially Frank worked on problems of non-equilibrium phase-transitions in Early Universe cosmology and problems in quantum gravity as well as issues in Physics and Mathematics education. As his interest in Economics began to grow, he turned to questions concerning:

1. the applicability of physics-inspired methods to addressing questions in Economics and Social Sciences,
2. the role of complexity and networks in the interaction between environmental and economic systems, and
3. the Economics, Sociology and Philosophy of Science, with a focus on modelling, teaching, concept-formation and the relationship between models and narratives.

He is interested in how science-inspired narratives can be used to talk about economic or social processes, in particular including those that shape science and technology themselves, as well as to discuss the impact of science and technology on society, and what short-comings and conceptual failures such narratives can contain.

Teaching

Frank teaches the following courses at University College London:

• Computational Methods for EconomistsÌýECON0114;
• Environmental EconomicsÌýECON0052;
• Economics of ScienceÌýECON0055;
• Economics DissertationÌýECON0117;

Publications

• M. Swan, R. Dos Santos, F.M.C. Witte , Quantum Information Techniques, to appear in Special Issue on Quantum and Post-Moore’s Law Computing, IEEE Computer Society
• M. Swan, R. Dos Santos, F.M.C. Witte,Ìý. World Scientific; 2020 Mar 20.
• C. Spielmann, F.M.C. Witte, Exposing Undergraduate Students to Research Methodology and Critical Thinking, The Sixth Annual AEA Conference on Teaching and Research in Economic Education June 1-3, 2016, Atlanta, USA;
• F.M.C. Witte, , Physica Scripta 71 (2), 229 (2005);
• F.M.C. Witte, , Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and General 37 (42), 9965 (2004);
• F.M.C. Witte, , Physical Review A 55 (6), 4093 (1997)

Media

• Mathilde Robinet & Frank Witte,ÌýLes enseignements de la lutte anti-tabac face à la crise climatique,Ìý

Blogposts

Frank writes occasional blogs on various topics on his blog and is a regular contributor about Star Wars matters on . And has contributed to .