UCSB Statistics and Applied Probability Scholar Named to Treasury Department Advisory Committee

Among other provisions, Dodd-Frank established the Office of Financial Research (OFR) within the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Serving the treasury department’s Financial Stability Oversight Council, its member agencies, and the public, the OFR and its committees are charged with improving the quality, transparency, and accessibility of financial data and information; conducting and sponsoring research related to financial stability; and promoting best practices in risk management.

Jean-Pierre Fouque, professor of statistics and applied probability at UC Santa Barbara and director of the campus’s Center for Research in Financial Mathematics and Statistics, has been named to the OFR’s Financial Research Advisory Committee. The 30-member committee includes two Nobel laureates in economics; leaders in the business and non-profit sectors; and prominent researchers from major universities and think tanks, including UC Berkeley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, London School of Economics, Columbia University, and the Brookings Institution.

The committee, which will hold its inaugural meeting on Wednesday, December 5, in Washington, D.C., will work with the OFR to develop and employ best practices for data management, data standards, and research methodologies.

“We are pleased that such a distinguished group will serve on the advisory committee of the OFR,” said Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Neal Wolin. “We look forward to their valuable contributions to the OFR’s mission of improving the quality of financial data and facilitating more robust and sophisticated analysis of risks to the financial system.”

Said Fouque: “I am hoping to suggest to the OFR that we start funding multidisciplinary research with a direct link to the OFR. I’d like to identify key institutions where multidisciplinary groups could be formed with experts in math, economics, statistics, finance, and engineering. They could submit proposals to the OFR and get funding for research.”

Fouque, who joined the faculty at UCSB in 2006, is an expert in financial mathematics; stochastic processes; stochastic partial differential equations; and waves in random media. He is co-editor of the forthcoming “Handbook on Systemic Risk” (Cambridge University Press), which provides researchers with an introduction to the multifaceted aspects of systemic risks faced by global financial markets.