Daniel Celeny's Master thesis awarded

Founded in 2006, the Natixis Foundation for Research & Innovation is a prominent organization dedicated to advancing research in mathematical finance and data sciences. The Foundation supports a broad range of fields, including capital markets, actuarial finance, quantitative asset management, risk management, and financial econometrics. It also focuses on emerging areas like derivatives pricing, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, particularly as they apply to the rapidly evolving world of digital finance and fintech.

Each year, the Natixis Foundation for Research and Innovation rewards the best research projects in France, the UK, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy requiring the use of the most advanced quantitative finance techniques on complex subjects of current interest to banks, insurers and asset management companies. The Natixis Foundation's Scientific Committee awarded the 2024 prize for the best Master's thesis in quantitative finance to Daniel Celeny (2023 MFE alumnus)for his paper “Cyber Risk and the cross-section of stock returns”realized at ArmaSuisse Science and Technology – Cyber-Defence Campus under the supervison of Dr. Alain Mermoud, Dr. Loïc Marechal and Professor Pierre Collin-Dufresne.

The Natixis Foundation’s initiatives are guided by a renowned Scientific Committee comprised of influential figures from the academic and financial worlds. The Committee is led by Michel Crouhy, former Head of Quantitative Research at Natixis, and includes notable members like:

• Denis Talay, Head of Research at INRIA and former professor at École Polytechnique;
• Rama Cont, a professor at Oxford University and a director of research at CNRS;
• Nicole El Karoui, professor emeritus at Sorbonne University, known for her foundational work in finance education;
• Rajna Gibson, professor at the University of Geneva and Deputy Director of the Geneva Finance Research Institute.