University of Chicago mathematics professor Kevin Corlette became director of the University’s Financial Mathematics Program, effective July 1, Mathematics Department Chair Shmuel Weinberger has announced. Corlette succeeds Henri Berestycki, who served as director for the last two years, and who will continue to serve on the program’s advisory board.
Corlette, who specializes in differential and algebraic geometry, joined UChicago’s mathematics faculty in 1987. He served as Mathematics Department chairman from 2001-07, and as interim chair in fall 2011.
Corlette has held visiting positions at various institutions around the world, including the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley, Calif., the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques near Paris, and the Tata Institute for Fundamental Research in Mumbai.
Berestycki, a visiting professor in mathematics and co-director of the University’s Stevanovich Center for Financial Mathematics, splits his time between Paris and Chicago. He also serves as director of the Center for Mathematics and Modeling in Social Sciences of EHESS, the Institute for Higher Studies in Social Sciences in Paris. His long association with the University began with his appointment as a Dickson Instructor in Mathematics from 1975-77.
More than 100 students are enrolled in the one-year program, which leads to an SM in financial mathematics. Professors in mathematics, statistics and economics as well as leading professionals in the financial industry comprise the faculty of the program, which was founded in 1996.
—Prof. Jacqueline Stewart
