Hear from our winners and learn about prior year programs!

Announcement: 2025 BlackRock Applied Research Award Winner

We are delighted to announce the winner of the 2025 BlackRock Applied Research Award: Rajarshi Som at Indian School of Business, Hyderabad for his paper and research on ‘Is market risk premium disguised as volatility risk premium?’

We also congratulate Rajarshi’s fellow runner up finalists:

• Purba Banerjee - Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru
• Sanjay Kumar Jain - Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
• Raja Reddy Bujunoori - Indian School of Business, Hyderabad
• Manoj Devrala - Indian School of Business, Hyderabad

2025 Academic Panel

Dr Ronald N. Kahn, Managing Director is Global Head of Systematic Investment Research at BlackRock. He has overall responsibility for the research efforts behind BlackRock Systematic products. He is a 2007 winner of the Bernstein Fabozzi/Jacobs Levy award for best article in the Journal of Portfolio Management. He earned an AB degree in physics, summa cum laude, from Princeton University, and a PhD in physics from Harvard University. He was a post-doctoral fellow in physics at University of California, Berkeley.

Dr Sankarsan Basu, Professor at IIM Bangalore, specializing in Financial Calculus, Option Pricing, Bond and Portfolio Valuation, and the application of quantitative techniques to finance, insurance, reinsurance, risk management, biostatistics, and corporate finance. Currently, Dr. Basu serves as the President of the Asia-Pacific Risk and Insurance Association (APRIA). Prior to academia, he worked in Treasury Operations at ICICI Ltd. (now ICICI Bank) in Mumbai. Dr. Basu also serves on the boards of The Clearing Corporation of India Limited, The Bangalore Stock Exchange Limited, and Bilcare India. He holds a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics and a Master’s degree from IIT Kanpur.

Dr Sandeep Juneja, Professor and Director of the Safexpress Centre for Data, Learning and Decision Sciences at Ashoka University. He earned his B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Delhi (1989), followed by an M.S. in Statistics and a Ph.D. in Operations Research from Stanford University (1993). His professional journey includes Financial Credit Insurance: American Credit Indemnity, Baltimore Consulting: Andersen Consulting, India and academia: IIT Delhi (1996–2002), TIFR (2002-2024), and visiting roles at Columbia University, Stanford University, and ISB. He worked in Google Research and CAFRAL research wing.

Dr Rajeswari Sengupta, Associate Professor of Economics at IGIDR, Mumbai. Her research spans international finance, open economy macroeconomics, monetary economics, banking, and national accounts. She previously held positions at IFMR Business School and worked with the IMF, World Bank, and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Rajeswari contributed to India’s Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC 2016) and serves on expert committees for RBI, MoSPI, and Tamil Nadu. She is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of South Asian Development, a member of FICCI Economists’ Forum and SERI, and a columnist for Business Standard. Her work appears in leading international journals. She earned her Ph.D. from UC Santa Cruz and holds degrees from Presidency College and Delhi School of Economics.

Dr Ranjan Chakravarty, Professor of practice at Great Lakes University. He focusses on market microstructure, capital markets- fixed income and derivatives markets. Dr. Ranjan completed his PhD from University of Texas at Arlington and post doc from Columbia business school. He has over three decades of experiences of working with Bank of Boston, GE Capital, DBS Bank, Singapore Mercantile Exchange, Multi commodity exchange India. He played various roles in business, risk and trading.

Dr. Karthik Balakrishnan, Professor of Accounting at Indian School of Business. His research examines the economic consequences of corporate disclosure, financial reporting, and disclosure regulations, with publications in top journals including Journal of Finance, Journal of Accounting and Economics, and The Accounting Review. He serves on the editorial boards of The Accounting Review and Review of Accounting Studies. Previously, he held faculty positions at Rice University, London Business School, and Wharton, earning multiple research and teaching excellence awards.

Announcement: 2024 BlackRock Applied Research Award Winner

We are delighted to announce the winner of the 2024 BlackRock Applied Research Award: Mareeswaran M at Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore for his paper and research on "Passive Ownership and Investment Efficiency".

We also congratulate Mareeswaran's fellow runner up finalists:

• Priti Biswas - Indian Institute of Management, Indore
• Meera Davi Chalissery - Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode
• Anand Krishnan V K - Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode
• Pratik Thakkar - Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research

2024 Academic Panel

Dr. Tirthankar Patnaik, Chief Economist at the National Stock Exchange of India Limited. Prior to joining NSE, Dr. Patnaik worked at investment banking firms such as Mizuho Securities, Citi, and Religare. His expertise lies in macro and portfolio strategy, corporate finance, Indian economy and markets, consumer analytics, financial econometrics. He holds a PhD from IGIDR.

Dr. Sankarshan Basu, Professor at IIM Bangalore. He has authored several papers in renowned international journals, including Insurance: Mathematics and Economics and the Journal of Statistical Planning and Inference. Dr. Basu is currently the President of the Asia-Pacific Risk and Insurance Association (APRIA).

Dr. Prachi Mishra, Dr. Prachi is faculty at Ashoka University. Previously she was chief of the Systemic Issues Division and Advisor in the Research Department at the International Monetary Fund. Between 2018 and 2020, she worked at Goldman Sachs as Managing Director, Global Macro Research, and India Chief Economist. During 2014-17, she served as Specialist Adviser and Head of the Strategic Research Unit at the Reserve Bank of India. During 2012-13, she was Senior Economist in the Office of Chief Economic Advisor in India’s Ministry of Finance, and at the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council.. She has a PhD in Economics from Columbia University and a Masters from the Delhi School of Economics.

Dr. Pratap Kumar, Member of the Board of Advisers at IIM Lucknow and Faculty at the Thapar Institute. He has previously served in various advisory roles, including Deputy Secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office, Joint Secretary for Infrastructure Policy & Finance at the Ministry of Finance, Principal Economic Adviser in New Delhi, and with the World Bank in Washington, DC. Dr. Pratap has MBA from IIM, Lucknow and a PhD from University of Maryland, College Park, USA.

Dr. Chinmoy Ghosh, Department Head and Gladstein Professor of Finance at the University of Connecticut. He led the development of the Master of Science in Financial Risk Management (MsFRM), one of the Business School’s most successful graduate programs. Dr. Ghosh has served as a major or associate advisor on over a dozen PhD dissertation. He has published over fifty articles in academic journals. He is ranked among the top 20 most prolific research scholars in the world in Real Estate, and among the top 3 percent of research scholars in Finance. Dr. Ghosh has PhD in Finance from Penn State University and Masters from IIM Calcutta.

Dr. Andrew Ang, Managing Director at BlackRock, is Head of Factors, Sustainable and Solutions (FS-Squared). He also serves as Senior Advisor to BlackRock Retirement Solutions. As part of BlackRock Systematic, which manages over $220 billion, FS-Squared focuses on proprietary factor investing, delivering cutting-edge sustainable alpha, ESG outcomes and product innovation. Dr. Ang earned a BEc(Hons) from Macquarie University, and a PhD in finance and MS in statistics from Stanford University.

We are delighted to announce the winner of the 2023 BlackRock Applied Research Award: Tim de Silva in the Finance program at MIT Sloan for his paper and research on "Insurance Versus Moral Hazard In Income-Contingent Student Loan Repayment".

We also congratulate Tim's fellow finalists:

• Leland Bybee, Yale School of Management, Financial Economics
• Victor Saint-Jean, Sciences Po, Economics
• Zhiyu Fu, University of Chicago, Financial Economics
• Brian Jonghwan Lee, Columbia Business School, Finance

2023 Academic Panel

Viral V. Acharya, C.V. Starr Professor of Economics in the Department of Finance at New York University Stern School of Business (NYU-Stern)
Andrew Ang, BlackRock, Managing Director, Head of Factors, Sustainable and Solutions
Andrea Eisfeldt, Laurence D. and Lori W. Fink Endowed Chair in Finance at the UCLA Anderson School of Management
Ronald Kahn, BlackRock, Managing Director, Global Head of Systematic Investment Research
David Lando, Copenhagen Business School, Professor of Finance and Director of the Center for Financial Frictions (FRIC)

We are delighted to announce the winner of the 2022 BlackRock Applied Research Award: Claudio Rizzi in the Finance program from the University of Miami for his paper and research on "Nature as a Defense from Disasters: Natural Capital and Municipal Bond Yields".

We also congratulate Claudio's fellow finalists:

• Maxime Bonelli, HEC Paris, Finance
• Hoa Briscoe-Tran, Ohio State University, Finance
• Shushu Liang, Harvard University, Economics
• Paul Yoo, University of North Carolina, Finance

2022 Academic Panel

Andrew Ang, BlackRock, Managing Director, Head of Factors, Sustainable and Solutions
Sudheer Chava, Georgia Institute of Technology, Alton M. Costley Chair and Professor of Finance, Finance Area Coordinator, Scheller College of Business, Director Quantitative and Computational Finance (QCF) Program​ 
Gerald Garvey, BlackRock, Managing Director, Head of Sustainability Research​ 
Robert Korajczyk, Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, Harry G. Guthmann Professor of Finance, co-director of the Center for Financial Institutions and Markets 
Antoinette Schoar, MIT Sloan School of Management, Stewart C. Myers-Horn Family Professor of Finance

We are delighted to announce the winner of the 2021 BlackRock Applied Research Award: Alexandru Barbu in the Finance program from the London Business School for his paper and research on "Ex-Post Loss Sharing in Consumer Financial Markets".

We also congratulate Alexandru's fellow finalists:
• Antonio Coppola, Harvard University, Economics
• Simon Schmickler, Princeton University, Economics
• Aymeric Bellon, University of Pennsylvania, Wharton, Finance
• David Yang, Stanford University, Finance

2021 Academic Panel

Andrew Ang, BlackRock, Managing Director, Head of Factor-Based Strategies Group
Anna Cieslak, Duke University, Fuqua School of Business, Associate Professor of Finance
Robert Engle, New York University Stern School of Business, Michael Armellino Professor of Management and Financial Services, Co-Director of The Volatility and Risk Institute, 2003 Nobel Prize in Economics
Ravi Jagannathan, Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, CME Group/John F. Sandner Chair of Finance, Co-Director of Financial Institutions and Markets Research Center
Ronald Kahn, BlackRock, Managing Director, Global Head of Systematic Equity Research
David Thesmar, MIT Sloan School of Management, Franco Modigliani Professor of Financial Economics, Professor of Finance

We are delighted to announce the winner of the 2020 BlackRock Applied Research Award: Shohini Kundu in the Finance program from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business for her job market paper, “The Externalities of Fire Sales: Evidence from Collateralized Loan Obligations”. Shohini’s research interests include loan markets and network effects. Her job market paper focused on the surprising result that the structure of collateralized loan obligations (CLOs)—in particular the covenants they include—cause the struggles of one company whose loan the CLO holds to spillover and negatively impact unrelated companies whose loans are also in the same CLO. This paper helps us understand a fragility of current markets.

We also congratulate Shohini’s fellow finalists:

• Natee Amornsiripanitch, Yale School of Management, Financial Economics
• Bruce Iwadate, London School of Economics, Finance
• Samir Mahmoudi, Georgia State University, Economics
• Chase Ross, Yale School of Management, Financial Economics

2020 Academic Panel

• Andrew Ang, BlackRock, Managing Director, Head of Factor-Based Strategies Group
• Tim Bollerslev, Duke, Juanita and Clifton Kreps Distinguished Professor of Economics, in Trinity College of Arts and Sciences
• Janice Eberly, Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management, James R. and Helen D. Russell Professor of Finance
• Ron Kahn, BlackRock, Managing Director, Global Head of Systematic Equity Research
• Jonathan Parker, MIT Management Sloan School, Robert C. Merton Professor of Finance, Co-director of the MIT Golub Center for Finance and Policy

Karamfil Todorov

London School of Economics and Political Science, PhD in Finance

2019 Finalists

• Samuel Antill, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Finance Department; Do the Right Firms Survive Bankruptcy?
• Nuno Clara, London Business School, Finance Department; Demand Elasticities, Nominal Rigidities and Asset Prices
• Cameron LaPoint, Columbia University, Economics Department; You Only Lend Twice: Corporate Borrowing and Land Values in Real Estate Cycles
• Alejandro Lopez-Lira, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Finance Department; Risk Factors that Matter

2019 Academic Panel

• Kathleen Hagerty, Northwestern University, Associate Provost for Faculty, First Chicago Professorship in Finance, Professor of Finance
• Ron Kahn, BlackRock, Managing Director, Global Head of Systematic Equity Research
• James Poterba, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Economics
• Johannes Stroebel, New York University, Leonard N Stern School of Business, David S. Loeb Professor of Finance, Boxer Faculty Fellow

Yukun Liu

Assistant Professor of Finance at Rochester Simon School of Business, Yukun holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University

2018 Finalists

• Roberto Gómez Cram, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Finance Department; Assistant professor at London Business School
• Weiling Liu, Harvard University, Economics Department; Assistant Professor of Finance at Northeastern University
• Mauricio Ulate, UC Berkeley, Economics Department; Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
• Chenzi Xu, Harvard University, Economics Department; Assistant Professor in Finance at Stanford Graduate School of Business (starting Fall 2020)

2018 Academic Panel

• Robert Engle, Michael Armellino Professor in the Management of Financial Services Finance, New York University Stern School of Business; Awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize in Economics
• Terry Hendershott, Professor in Finance & Operations and Information Technology Management, Willis H. Booth Chair in Banking and Finance, Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley
• Antoinette Schoar, Michael M. Koerner Professor of Entrepreneurship, MIT Sloan School of Management
• Andrew Ang, Blackrock, Managing Director, Head of Factor Investing Strategies
• Ron Kahn, BlackRock, Managing Director, Global Head of Systematic Equity Research

Laura Blattner

Assistant Professor of Finance at Stanford GSB,
Laura holds a Ph.D. in Political Economics and Government from Harvard University

"The BlackRock Applied Research Award was a great opportunity to present my research and get valuable feedback from an excellent jury panel before the job market. I strongly encourage future job market candidates to apply!"

2017 Finalists

• Emilio Bisetti, Assistant Professor in Finance at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; PhD from Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University, Financial Economics
• Daniel Green, Assistant Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School; PhD from Sloane School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Finance
• Yueran Ma, Assistant Professor in the Department of Finance at Chicago Booth School of Business; PhD from Harvard University, Business Economics
• Sebastien Plante, Assistant Professor in the Department of Finance at University of Wisconsin – Madison; PhD from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Finance

2017 Academic Panel

• Andrew Ang, Managing Director, Head of Factor Investing Strategies at BlackRock
• Ronald Kahn, Managing Director, Global Head of Scientific Equity Research at BlackRock
• Robert Korajczyk, Harry G. Guthmann Professor of Finance, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
• Deborah Lucas, Sloan Distinguished Professor of Finance, and Director of the MIT Golub Center for Finance and Policy, MIT Sloan School of Management
• David Musto, Ronald O. Perelman Professor in Finance Department Chair, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

Pablo Slutzky

Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland, Robert H. Smith School of Business,
Pablo holds a Ph.D. in Finance from Columbia University

“Blackrock’s Applied Research award had a dual impact on me: one internal, one external. First, it gave me more confidence to face the job market process. If a jury panel of such high quality enjoyed my research, I knew other people would too. Second, Blackrock’s prestige spilled over on me, giving me much more visibility and giving me also a “quality certification mark”. In many interviews, the interviewers brought up the award.

In sum, Blackrock’s Applied Research Award had a huge impact on my placement, and therefore on my career path.”

2016 Finalists

• Adrien d’Avernas, Assistant Professor of Finance, Stockholm School of Economics; Ph.D. in Economics, UCLA Anderson, University of California, Los Angeles
• Eric Moore, Ph.D. in Economics, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
• Tarik Umar, Assistant Professor of Finance, Jesse H. Graduate School of Business, Rice Unniversity; Ph.D. in Finance, Booth School of Business, University of Chicago
• Katherine Waldock, Assistant Professor of Finance at the McDonough School of Business; Ph.D. in Finance, Stern School of Business, New York University

2016 Academic Panel

• Andrew Ang, Managing Director, Head of Factor Investing Strategies
• Andrea Eisfeldt, Laurence D. and Lori W. Fink Endowed Chair in Finance and Professor of Finance, UCLA Anderson
• Robert Engel, Michael Armellino Professor of Finance, New York University Stern School of Business
• Ronald Kahn, Managing Director, Global Head of Scientific Equity Research at BlackRock
• Leonid Kogan, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Professor of Management and Professor of Finance, MIT Sloan School of Management; Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research

Andrew Wu

Assistant Professor of Technology and Operations and of Finance, Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan,
Andrew holds a Ph.D. in Finance from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

“The BlackRock Applied Research Award was extremely important for my research career, for not only did the award provide generous financial support for my dissertation, it directly inspired my subsequent research pipeline to focus on practically relevant topics with measurable impact on the investment management industry. Throughout my interactions with professionals in different teams at BlackRock during the entire process, I was constantly impressed by their broad knowledge of frontier topics and methods in both finance and technology, and their ability to effectively integrate these knowledge in large-scale investment settings.

I strongly encourage Ph.D. candidates to apply for the BlackRock Applied Research Award, and benefit from the valuable interactions with BlackRock team members. You will learn a lot from them.”

2015 Finalists

• Olivier Darmouni, Assistant Professor of Business, Columbia University; Ph.D. in Economics, Princeton University
• Ryan Lewis, Assistant Professor of Finance, Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado Boulder; Ph.D. in Finance, London Business School
• Binying Liu, Assistant Professor, Department of Finance, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; Ph.D. in, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
• Arlene Wong, Assistant Professor of Economics, Princeton University; Ph.D. in Economics, Northwestern University

2015 Academic Panel

• Wei Jiang, Arthur F. Burns Professor of Free and Competitive Enterprise, Columbia Business School
• Ronald Kahn, Managing Director, Global Head of Scientific Equity Research at BlackRock
• Andrew Lo, Charles E. and Susan T. Harris Professor of Finance and Director, Laboratory for Financial Engineering, MIT Sloan School of Management
• Jessica Wachter, Richard B. Worley Professor of Financial Management, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania