École polytechnique: First laureate of the “CFM Women in quantitative finance” grant

The “Econophysics & Complex systems” Chair awards for the first time its “CFM Women in Quantitative Finance” PhD scholarship to Cécilia Aubrun so that she can carry out her research on endogenous liquidity crises. This scholarship encourages research excellence and gives visibility to young woman researchers in this field.

First winner of the “CFM Women in Quantitative Finance” thesis grant from the “Econophysics & Complex systems” Chair, Cécilia Aubrun is a young researcher at the Hydrodynamics Laboratory (LadHyX*) under the direction of Michael Benzaquen, holder of the Chair. Thanks to this annual grant, which values women in a field where they are under-represented, she will be able to conduct her research on endogenous liquidity crises, which occur when a financial market gets deadlocked and no transactions take place.

In particular, Cécilia’s work will study the impact of volatility, i.e. internal market price variations, on the onset of these crises. One of the challenges is to elucidate the extent to which electronic markets play a role in market instability, because although there were liquidity crises prior to electronic markets, they are often blamed.

Passionate about these issues, the young researcher confides to us: “this prize is an excellent opportunity to work with experts in quantitative finance! If my participation in this programme can also inspire others, it will be a first step towards a better representation of women in quantitative finance.”

For Michael Benzaquen, holder of the Chair, “institutions have an important role to play in improving parity in our laboratories.” Indeed, in the world of finance, this type of initiative is quite rare given the low proportion of women. “This is why we have set up this scholarship to encourage and give greater visibility to exceptional young women researchers,” he explains.