Julia Langdon named to Poets&Quants’ 2026 Best 40-Under-40 Graduate Business Professors

Now in its 14^th edition, the Poets&Quants Best 40-Under-40 Graduate Business Professors recognition honors emerging business school faculty based on excellence in teaching and research. This year’s honorees were selected from more than 1,700 nominations submitted by students, colleagues, administrators, and professors themselves. Teaching quality and impact accounted for 70 percent of the evaluation, while research contributed 30 percent. This year’s group includes professors from 39 business schools worldwide.

Julia Langdon joined ESMT in 2023. She received her PhD in Management from London Business School and also holds degrees from University College London and Warwick University. Her research focuses on behavioral ethics, examining how organizations can prevent unethical behavior by understanding the psychological mechanisms people use to justify unethical actions and how employees and stakeholders respond to moral messaging and ethical scandals. A second stream of her research explores how people’s beliefs about morality influence their own behavior and the behavior of others, as well as how organizations can promote ethical behavior and inclusion, particularly for disabled professionals. Across both research areas, she combines experimental and field methods.

Langdon’s work has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including Current Opinion in Psychology and Nature Reviews Psychology. At ESMT, she won the Best Teacher Award for the MSc class of 2025 and was named to the President’s Honors Roll for teaching the MSc class of 2024 and the MBA classes of 2024 and 2025.

“I'm very honored to be included in this year's list,” says Langdon. “In my research, my goal is to understand how organizations can meaningfully reduce unethical behavior at work, and why small cues in how they communicate their ethical commitments shape how people respond. In my teaching, I aim to translate this and the broader work of my field into actionable insights for my students, who meet every idea with enthusiasm and interrogation, considering them through the lens of their own organizational experiences.”

Jörg Rocholl, president of ESMT, says, “Julia Langdon’s recognition reflects both the quality of her research and her strong impact in the classroom. Her work addresses important questions around organizational behavior and inclusion and reflects ESMT’s strong focus on responsible leadership and critical thinking. We are delighted to see her work recognized internationally.”

The full Poets&Quants 2026 Best 40-Under-40 Graduate Business Professors list is available here.