He is a neuroscientist and business professor at the Kellogg School of Management and the neuroscience program at Northwestern University. His academic research uses methods from neuroscience to understand the underlying mechanisms of our psychology, behavior changes, emotion, decision making, and dreams. Dr. Cerf holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Caltech, an MA in Philosophy, and a B.Sc. in Physics from Tel-Aviv University.

He holds multiple patents and has published over 60 academic papers in journals such as Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and the Journal of Neuroscience, as well as popular science journals such as Scientific American Mind, Wired, New Scientist, and more. Additionally, his work has been portrayed in numerous media and cultural outlets such as CNN, BBC, Bloomberg, NPR, Time, MSNBC, and dozens of others.