Business

25 Sep 09

Two new professors have joined the Oxford-Man Institute: Thaleia Zariphopoulou (left) and Per Mykland (right).

The Oxford-Man Institute of Quantitative Finance (OMI) and the Man Research Laboratory (MRL) officially opened new larger premises in Oxford on 24 September, demonstrating that the two groups’ unique collaboration is flourishing as it moves into its third year.

In a small ceremony held in Oxford, The Chancellor Lord Patten announced the official opening of the new purpose-designed offices, creating a stimulating environment that fosters day-to-day interactions between the two groups.

The two groups were brought together in 2007 when the Man Group, a world-leading alternative investment management business, provided the cornerstone funding for the first academic institute dedicated to quantitative finance, and co-located it with its own commercial researchers.

This is a unique collaboration: MRL’s research in Oxford is a commercial undertaking while the OMI pursues academic excellence, independent of Man.

‘The OMI has added two new professors, six new faculty and postdoctoral researchers, and more than doubled the number of students to 20,’ said Professor Neil Shephard, Director of the OMI, charting the Institute’s steady progress in its aim of becoming the world-leading centre for the study of quantitative finance.

Per Mykland joins the Oxford-Man Institute as the Man Professor of Finance and Statistics from the University of Chicago, where he has been professor of statistics and head of research in their quantitative finance programme.

He is an expert in the development of statistical methodology based on martingales and has, for example, carried out pioneering work introducing new strategies to precisely estimate the variation of asset prices taking into account market inefficiencies.

Thaleia Zariphopoulou is the first holder of the Man Professorship of Quantitative Finance at Oxford University. Professor Zariphopoulou, who took up her new post in September, was the VF Neuhaus Centennial Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, USA. She is an expert in quantitative finance, portfolio management and stochastic optimisation.

Professor Shephard commented: ‘The Institute is delighted to welcome Per and Thaleia to Oxford to further strengthen our outstanding research programme. They are both outstanding scholars and their arrival underlines the continual strengthening of the Institute as the leading centre in a number of crucial areas of modern financial research.’  

The Oxford-Man Institute of Quantitative Finance is an interdisciplinary initiative across the University, involving researchers from the Departments of Economics, Engineering Science, and Statistics, as well as the Mathematical Institute, the Computing Laboratory, the Law Faculty and the Saїd Business School.