Experience Stern | News & Events

In September, NYU Stern hosted WIN – Workshop on Information in Networks – to bring together leading researchers across disciplines studying ‘information in networks.’ The conference was attended by speakers and participants from top companies and universities, including Google Research, HP Labs, IBM, Carnegie Mellon University, Columbia University, Harvard University, MIT, NYU Stern, Stanford University, University of Cambridge, and University of Pennsylvania.

 Sinan Aral, Assistant Professor of Information, Operations and Management Sciences, has been selected as a 2010 PopTech Science Fellow. Professor Aral joins a handful of other extremely high potential, socially engaged working scientists who view science as an essential way of thinking, discovering, understanding and deciding, and who can effectively communicate their work and its importance to the public.

Despite the greatest economic crisis since the Depression, retailers saw revenues from e-commerce increase in 2009, signaling a shift from bricks to clicks. By 2014 U.S. online retail sales are forecasted to increase to $250 billion and the web influences 46 percent of offline purchases.

The Stern Hedge Fund Association (SHFA) joins the ranks of NYU Stern’s some 40 MBA student clubs this fall. “As the hedge fund industry continues to grow and seek talent with graduate degrees, the SHFA will serve as a gateway for current MBA students to learn about the hedge fund industry,” explains Agata Rzamek, CAIA, club co-president. “The club will also facilitate networking between current students and alumni and other professionals in the field.”

In August, NYU Stern generated nearly 900 media hits. Stern faculty were featured for their perspectives on a number of topics including the threat of a double dip recession, the financial reform bill and the economic recovery in a variety of prominent media outlets including Bloomberg, the Financial Times and Forbes. Additionally in some 30 op-eds, Stern faculty offered their perspectives on the floods in Pakistan and banking reform, and shared lessons from the Great Depression.

In a new study, the first and largest of its kind, NYU Stern Professor of Marketing Scott Galloway, Dean of The George Washington University School of Business Doug Guthrie, and a team of experts evaluated and ranked 100 US Senators’ Digital IQ® including website strength, social media following and sentiment, digital marketing aptitude and search engine optimization skills. The results reveal that Republican Senators are savvier online and are acquiring likes and followers at a greater velocity than Democratic Senators.

 Anindya Ghose, Assistant Professor of Information, Operations and Management Sciences, and four NYU colleagues were awarded a five-year, $2.9 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s prestigious and highly competitive IGERT (The Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship) program for research. The award is to pursue the research and teaching of security and privacy issues on the Internet and other critical information infrastructures.

On August 2, NYU Stern hosted Timothy Geithner, US Secretary of the Treasury, who gave his first public remarks since the enactment of the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The Secretary addressed the core principles that will guide the implementation of these historic reforms.

In July, NYU Stern generated more than 800 media hits. Stern faculty were featured for their perspectives on a number of topics including the threat of a double dip recession, the financial reform bill and Greek public debt in a variety of prominent media outlets including Bloomberg, the Financial Times and Forbes. Additionally in 35 op-eds, Stern faculty offered their perspectives on Goldman Sachs and the SEC, AIG’s problems and the Eurozone economy.

The Stern Campus Greening Initiative, led by MBA student Sarah Driansky (above), received a $10,000 grant from The Brita Products Company for their proposal to install 25+ water bottle filing stations in NYU campus buildings. The grant is provided by the College FilterForGood Eco-Challenge www.filterforgood.com/ecochallenge/, which challenges college students to make their campuses more sustainable.

On July 19, Lawrence White, Arthur E. Imperatore Professorship in Entrepreneurial Studies and Deputy Chair of the Economics Department at NYU Stern, testified at the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) hearing held jointly by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Office of Thrift Supervision. Professor White has previously written on the CRA, which was created in 1977 to reduce discriminatory credit practices against low-income neighborhoods.

Statistics show that green-lighting a movie script that fails to produce profits at the box office can lead to financial ruin for studios – close to negative 50% ROI for unsuccessful films. On the upside, box office hits can produce more than 200% ROI.

Each year, Microsoft Research appoints seven fellows to its prestigious Faculty Fellowship Program, which seeks nominees who are advancing computing research in novel directions, and who demonstrate the likelihood of becoming thought leaders in the field. Sinan Aral, Assistant Professor of Information, Operations and Management Sciences, was chosen this spring as a Microsoft Faculty Fellow, having competed with nominees from all over the world.

NYU Stern faculty are available to provide commentary on the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act up for final vote in the Senate.

Nomura Professor of Finance Jeffrey Wurgler received a 2010 Rising Star in Finance Award. The award was presented at a conference at the Rochester Institute of Technology held in June.

On July 1, NYU Stern Professor and former Insurance Superintendent for New York State Eric Dinallo appeared before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission for a hearing on the role of derivatives in the financial crisis, specifically with respect to AIG. Professor Dinallo was Superintendent of the New York State Insurance Department from 2007-09, including the time of AIG’s financial troubles and the US financial crisis.

According to a new, first-of-its-kind study released today by NYU Stern, digital competency is the key to success in the world’s fastest growing market, China. The study ranks the digital competence of 100 prestige brands in China, scoring each brand against more than 100 qualitative and quantitative data points, and is assigned a Digital IQ ranking of Genius, Gifted, Average, Challenged, Feeble or Luddite.

As accounting policy makers, including the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the Securities and Exchange Commission, continue to discuss a game-changing shift in the world of financial reporting, NYU Stern experts are available to comment on a variety of issues surrounding the possible convergence of U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

Two NYU Stern information systems professors, Anindya Ghose, assistant professor of information, operations and management sciences, and Arun Sundararajan, associate professor of information, operations and management sciences and NEC Faculty Fellow, were each granted Google & WPP Marketing Research Awards.

Richard Sylla, Henry Kaufman Professor of the History of Financial Institutions and Markets and Professor of Economics, was unanimously elected chairman of the board of the Museum of American Finance. The Museum, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, is the nation’s only public museum dedicated to finance, entrepreneurship and the open market system.

Professor Edward Altman, a world-renowned expert in the field of corporate bankruptcy, distressed debt and credit risk analysis, started off the event discussing "How the Financial Crisis Has Affected the Credit Markets."

The Leonard N. Stern School of Business Graduate Convocation Ceremony took place on Thursday, May 13, 2010 at Radio City Music Hall. Graduate Convocation, which is held in addition to New York University’s Commencement Exercises, honors students who have completed the requirements for advanced degrees from the NYU Stern School. Each student is recognized individually.

The Leonard N. Stern School of Business Undergraduate Baccalaureate Ceremony took place on Thursday, May 13, 2010 at Radio City Music Hall. Baccalaureate, which is held in addition to New York University's Commencement Exercises, honors students who have completed the requirements for bachelors degrees from the NYU Stern School. Each student is recognized individually, and prizes for extracurricular and academic achievements are awarded.

Nobel Laureate and Professor of Finance Robert Engle was selected to be a member of a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) joint committee to address emerging regulatory issues. The Joint CFTC-SEC Advisory Committee on Emerging Regulatory Issues is responsible for developing recommendations relating to both agencies. The Committee will examine the May 6 stock market fall and the market forces that contributed to the volatility of that trading day.

On May 6, 2010, Viral Acharya, Professor of Finance, testified before the US House Financial Services Committee at a hearing on "The End of Excess (Part One): Reversing Our Addiction to Debt and Leverage."