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Investment banks are hiring increasing numbers of science and engineering PhDs to fill analytical, econometric and technology sector roles.

A workshop designed to explore this phenomenon and bring together investment banks and PhD students will take place on Thursday 21 June at ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº (¹û¶³Ó°Ôº).

Banks taking part in the event include Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Goldman Sachs, with presentations covering areas such as analytics & risk, derivative product modelling and algorithmic trading. Response to the event has been overwhelming, with 170 students from institutions across London registered to attend.

Workshop organiser Professor Philip Treleaven, ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº Department of Computer Science, says: "During the past fifteen years the financial services industry has been transformed by the evolution of computational science and analytical techniques, spanning applied mathematics, advanced statistical techniques and artificial intelligence.

"Computational science techniques have proved remarkably successful within areas such as automated trading (forecasting and market-making), asset selection, pricing (within the fixed income, equity & foreign exchange markets), risk assessment, credit rating/scoring, and fraud detection, such as card fraud, money laundering and insider dealing. I believe this is why the investment banking industry is increasingly hiring staff with science and engineering PhDs, and undertaking research with universities such as ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº, Imperial and LSE.

"For instance here at ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº we already work closely with leading institutions both on research, covering areas such as automated trading, and teaching, where we are introducing a new MSc in Financial Computing). We are currently establishing a virtual trading laboratory with funding from Reuters, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and others. Investment banking is becoming a career of choice for many of our brightest undergraduates and increasingly for our Masters and PhD students."

Notes for Editors

1. 'Career opportunities for PhDs in investment banking' will take place on Thursday 21 June between 2pm and 6pm, at ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº, Christopher Ingold Chemistry Auditorium, 20 Gordon Street, WC1H 0AJ.

2. Journalists wishing to attend or requiring more information should contact Dominique Fourniol in the ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº Media Relations Office on 0207 679 9728.