Second opinions in finance at Gerzensee doctoral workshop

By day's end of the opening of the 2008 Gerzensee meeting, the busy meeting schedule saw 6 research presentations from faculty, 18 doctoral presentations, a meeting of the General Assembly and a plenary lecture by Felix Kubler on robust computational experiments in finance.

The focus of the 2 day event is the doctoral workshop. Students are encouraged to present relatively early drafts of their research, rather than work that is nearer to publication. Each early draft paper is distributed to a single student discussant and to a member of faculty that is not directly supervising the research.

Students are very positive about this arrangement. They gain a critical review of their research from a fellow student, and insights from faculty. These second opinions (this is how one student described the process) can bring focus to preliminary results and can identify blind spots in otherwise well made research plans.

I’ll be following up this post with posts about individual attendees at the meeting, including students and professors who presented their work, and from other finance researchers that assembled at Gerzensee during the these intense two days past.

There is a full photo gallery of the event posted here.

Photos courtesy of Adrian Wipf.

Annual research meeting opens at Gerzensee

During the next few days, students and faculty of the Swiss Finance Institute will assemble at Gerzensee Study Centre, near Bern, for an annual research workshop.

The two-day meeting is largely devoted to research presentations, but also features a general assembly meeting of the Swiss Finance Institute, and of Finrisk, the Swiss National Science Foundation’s research project on Financial Valuation and Risk Management.

An important part of the meeting is the Doctoral Workshop. Students of the SFI doctoral program present their research and receive feedback from fellow students and faculty.

The student presentations are much anticipated events. Each student will not only present their own work, but also make a presentation on the work of fellow students in the program.

Prizes are awarded for the best research presentation, and also for the best presentation on a fellow student’s work, the so-called “best discussant” award.

The photo shows the first group of students shortly after they arrived on Sunday evening.

Founded by the Swiss National Bank, the Gerzensee Study Centre is an education and training centre for central bankers and economists. Though only 18 minutes by train from Bern, the Centre offers a kind of isolated splendor with fantastic views of the Swiss Alps.

I will reporting on the event during the next few days.