The 2018 Doug and Inyoung Boyd Colloquium: From Physics to Finance
Betsy Barton

Abstract:
Challenging mathematical and statistical problems, like modeling the universe or the stock market, have a lot in common. Both are extremely noisy and neither will be be fully understood during our lifetimes. Controlled experiments are not possible. I will outline in broad strokes the ways in which the skills I learned in astrophysics have transferred extremely well to finance. I will also talk about why working in finance has been fascinating, even for someone who never paid attention to the markets before.