Ale Smidts is a professor of marketing research and director of RSM's Erasmus Center for Neuroeconomics. Professor Smidts is the former chair of the Department of Marketing Management, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM, 2012- 2020), the former scientific director of ERIM (2004-2011) and the former dean of RSM Research. He was a board member of the Social Science and Humanities Division (SGW/NWO) of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) from 2012-2019. Since 2015 he is a member of the Advisory Board of the Neuromarketing Science and Business Association (NMSBA).

Professor Smidts current research focus is decision neuroscience and neuromarketing, including the neural processes underlying consumer decision making, social influence and dishonesty. Work in neuromarketing is focused brain metrics predicting market-level success. 

His work on decision neuroscience and neuromarketing has appeared in the Journal of Marketing Research, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Psychological Science, the Journal of Economic Psychology, the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Marketing Letters and in major journals in the field of neuroscience such as the Journal of Neuroscience, Social Cognitive & Affective Neuroscience, Nature Reviews Neuroscience, Neuroimage, PNAS, TICS and Neuron.

His previous work on behavioral decision making, risk attitudes and persuasive communication has appeared in major journals in the field of management such as Management Science, the Academy of Management Journal, Marketing Science, the International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of Consumer Psychology and the Journal of Consumer Research.