1. Faculty of Environment
  2. Institute for Transport Studies
  3. People
  4. Profile
Dr. Thomas Hancock

Dr. Thomas Hancock

Profile

I completed my PhD thesis “Travel behaviour modelling at the interface between econometrics and mathematical psychology” in 2019 and have worked at ITS as a research fellow since March 2019. A link to my thesis is here. I am currently working on the NEXUS project.

Invited Talks

  • “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket: the benefits of a sequential latent class approach for model averaging” (September 2021), TU Delft (Netherlands).
  • “Quantum choice models for capturing changes in choice contexts” (video link, September 2021), O.P. Jindal Global University (India).
  • “Introducing quantum probability to large-scale travel behaviour modelling” (March 2021), O.P. Jindal Global University (India).
  • “Decision field theory for choices in real-world settings”, November 2020, University of Basel (Switzerland).
  • "Quantum probability: a new method for modelling travel choices", December 2018, University of Stirling (UK).
  • "Decision field theory: improvements to current methodology and contrasts with standard choice modelling techniques", April 2017, KU Leuven (Belgium).

Awards

  • The inaugural David A. Hensher ‘Best Transport Demand Modelling Paper Prize’ at the Australasian Transport Research Forum, December 2021.
  • The 2019 Eric Pas Award, for the best dissertation in travel behaviour research, awarded by the International Association of Travel Behaviour Research (IATBR).
  • Award for the most innovative application of choice modelling named in honour of Andrew Daly, 6th International Choice Modelling Conference, August 2019.
  • Best student-led paper, 5th International Choice Modelling Conference, April 2017.

Research interests

My main areas of interest are:

  • Understanding the decision-making process
  • The integration of (econometric) choice modelling and mathematical psychology
  • Model specification and interpretation
  • Moral choice behaviour

My work thus far has focussed on the implementation of decision field theory and ideas from quantum cognition within choice modelling.

<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Some research projects I'm currently working on, or have worked on, will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy in Transport Studies (Choice Modelling), 2019, University of Leeds, UK.
  • BSc Mathematics, 2014, University of St Andrews, UK

Student education

PhD students:
Faza Fawzan Bastarianto: An integrated framework of agent-based and activity-travel behaviour modelling. A case study from The Greater Jakarta, Indonesia.

Yu Wang: Using multiple sources of data to understand travellers’ heterogeneous preferences and develop differentiated policies

Research groups and institutes

  • Choice Modelling

Current postgraduate researchers

<h4>Postgraduate research opportunities</h4> <p>We welcome enquiries from motivated and qualified applicants from all around the world who are interested in PhD study. Our <a href="https://phd.leeds.ac.uk">research opportunities</a> allow you to search for projects and scholarships.</p>