Leidy Cubillos-Pinilla has been an integral member of our team since 2018. She is currently serving as a lead research associate and PostDoc at the TUM Neurophysiological Leadership Lab(TUM NeLeLab). She has published in several top Journals including Journal of Small Business Management, Neuroscience and Biobehavioural Reviews, Biological Psychiatry, and PLOSOne. Her research focuses on experimental design and quantitative data analysis. She has developed expertise in organizational neuroscience, particularly in creativity, human capital, innovation, leadership, entrepreneurship, and the application of artificial intelligence to business. Leidy has collaborated with co-authors across national and international research networks.

Her methodological expertise spans a broad spectrum: academic writing and presenting organizational neuroscience topics to both managerial and scientific audiences; survey design and analysis; and advanced use of Python, R Studio, MATLAB, Qualtrics, Prolific, and SPSS. In neuroscience methodologies, she has experience with PsychoPy, E-Prime, seed-based neuroimaging fMRI meta-analyses, MRI, EEG (resting-state and task-based), biophysiological measurements, reaction-time tasks, mouse-tracking, eye-tracking, and hormone assessments.

Leidy holds a diploma in Psychology with a minor in Biology from the University of Los Andes, Colombia. She gained early professional experience as Senior HR Manager for Recruitment and Development at Mercados Zapatoca S.A., a leading supermarket chain in Colombia. She later completed her master’s degree in Neuro-Cognitive Psychology at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and contributed to several neuroscience laboratories. Most recently, she successfully defended her PhD thesis within our department, further solidifying her commitment to advancing knowledge in her field.

Short Bio

Since 03/2023	Postdoctoral Research Associate, Chair of Research and Science Management and Neurophysiological Leadership Lab, TUM School of Management.
05/2023 – 07/2023	Postdoctoral Fellowship - Research stay. Cambridge University, School Judge Business School. Ongoing collaboration: "Brain Deactivations and Activations in Creative Expressive Domains: voxel-based meta-analyses".
03/2023	PhD (Dr. phil), Rules are made to be broken! The role of rule-breaking in entrepreneurship - evidence from behavioural, cognitive and neuroscience approaches.
11/2018 – 03/2023	Research Associate at the Chair of Research and Science Management, TUM School of Management.
10/2016 – 09/2018	Internships and working student as research analyst in the institutions: the Institute of Stroke and Dementia, LMU, Munich; Body Social Cognition and Action Lab, LMU; PRONIA Early recognition of schizophrenia, LMU Klinik, Munich; Ruprecht-Karls-University, Heidelberg, Germany.
12/2014 – 10/2016	Senior Manager HR Recruiting and Development. Mercados Zapatoca S.A. Bogotá D.C, Colombia.
10/2016 – 09/2018	M.Sc. Neuro-cognitive Psychology, LMU, Munich. Scholarship: Deutschlandstipendium.
01/2010 – 09/2014	B.Sc. Psychology with a minor in Biology, University of Los Andes, Colombia. Award of Excellence Semestral Distinction of the Psychology Program.

Publications

Peer-reviewed publications and conference proceedings

Cubillos-Pinilla, L., Hadida, AL, Baez, S., Hernandez, H., & Kizilyamac, M. (2025). Neural foundations of creativity: A voxel-based meta-analysis of the activations and deactivations underlying creativity across linguistic, musical, and visual domains. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 178, 106354.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2025.106354

Cubillos-Pinilla, L., Hubner-Benz, S., Balthazard, P., Emmerling, F., & Peus, C. (2025). I make my own rules: The role of rule-breaking and ethics in driving entrepreneurial intention and involvement. Journal of Small Business Management, 1-38. https://doi.org/10.1080/00472778.2025.2509910

Hazelton, J. L., Carneiro, F., Maito, M., Richter, F., Legaz, A., Altschuler, F., Cubillos-Pinilla, L., Chen, Yu., Doherty., Baez, S., Ibáñez, A. (2024). Neuroimaging meta-analyses reveal convergence of interoception, emotion, and social cognition across neurodegenerative diseases. Biological Psychiatry, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2024.10.013

Cubillos-Pinilla, L., & Emmerling, F. (2022). Taking the chance! – Interindividual differences in rule-breaking. PLOS One, 17(10), e0274837. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0274837

Duering, M., Adam, R., Wollenweber, F., Bayer-Karpisnka, A., Baykara, E., Cubillos-Pinilla, LY.,  Gesierich, B., Araque Caballero, M., Stöcklein, S., Ewers, M., Pasternak, O., Dichgans, M. (2019). Within-lesion heterogeneity of subcortical DWI lesion evolution, and stroke outcome: A voxel-based Analysis. Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, 0271678X19865916.

Conference presentations

Cubillos-Pinilla, L.*; Fladerer, M.*; Peus, C. (2024, May). Identity Entrepreneurship and Engaged Followership: The Effects of Leader Communication Behavior on Follower Cognitive Effort and Behavior. Paper accepted for presentation at the 7th Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Leadership Symposium in Thessaloniki, Greece. 

Cubillos-Pinilla,L., Strobel., L., Emmerling, F., Peus, C. (2023, June). Who can become an entrepreneur? A brain-mind model predicting entrepreneurial orientation. Poster presented at the Organisational Neuroscience Conference in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Cubillos-Pinilla, L. & Emmerling, F. (2022, September). Rules are made to be broken! An eye-tracking and EEG study that evaluates neural correlates of individuals responses towards rules. Paper presented at the 52nd Congress of the German Society for Psychology (DGPs) in Hildesheim, Germany. 

Cubillos-Pinilla, L. & Emmerling, F. (2022, August). The neural correlates of creativity: a systematic meta-analysis of voxel-based fMRI data. Poster presented at the 2022 Neuroergonomics and NYC Neuromodulation Conferences in New York City, USA.

Cubillos-Pinilla, LY., Strobel, L., & Emmerling, F. (2021, September). Unravelling the neural correlates of rule-following and conditional rule-breaking. Poster accepted for presentation at the 3^rd Neuroergonomics Conference 2021, online.

Cubillos-Pinilla, LY; Hubner, S; Emmerling, F. (2021, August). I make my own rules! The interplay of rule-breaking behaviour, personality, and ethical orientation as intraindividual antecedents of entrepreneurial intention. Paper accepted for presentation at the 81st Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, held virtually

Cubillos-Pinilla, LY., Pfister, R. & Emmerling, F. (2020, March). Rules are made to be broken! -- Cognitive conflict underlying conditional rule-breaking. Paper presented at the 62nd Conference of Experimental Psychologists (TeaP) in Jena, Germany.

Cubillos-Pinilla, LY., Emmerling, F. & Pfister, R. (2019, November). Rules are made to be broken! - Cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying conditional rule-breaking -. Paper presented at the Australasian Cognitive Neuroscience Society Conference, Tasmania, Australia.

Cubillos-Pinilla, LY., Emmerling, F. & Pfister, R. (2019, June). Internal goals over external rules? – The cognitive and differential mechanisms underlying conditional rule breaking. Paper presented at TRACE Workshop, Würzburg, Deutschland.

Third Party Funding

2019 – 2023	Mobility fonds, TUM
2021	ExperimenTUM, TUM (together with Martin Fladerer & Franziska Emmerling)
2020	ExperimenTUM, TUM (together with Franziska Emmerling)
2019	ExperimenTUM, TUM (together with Hannah Kunde & Franziska Emmerling)
2019 – 2024	Diversity Funds, TUM
2017 – 2018	Deutschlandstipendium

Selected Scholarships and Awards

2014	Excellence semestral distinction of the Psychology program, University of Los Andes (Best University of Colombia)
2018	PhD Position received funding via MARIE SKŁODOWSKA-CURIE ACTIONS (Franziska Emmerling)
2017-2018	Best poster in MSc. competition, Neurocognitive Psychology, LMU
2025	2025 Traveling Expenses Grant for the Academy of Management Conference  from the Organizational Neuroscience and Biology interest Group (NeuB), AOM 2025.

Professional Memberships

German Psychological Society (DGPs)
Academy of Management

NEU Academy of Management

Australasian Neuroscience Society

Alumni of Neuroscience and Behavior Laboratory