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Finance Research Symposia

Each semester, in the Fall and Spring, the Finance Department at the University of Arizona hosts a research symposium during which leading scholars in financial economics present their most cutting-edge work. These presentations provide the speakers with the opportunity to disseminate their work and receive feedback from the Arizona faculty members. The symposium also includes several round-table discussions between the speakers and the Arizona PhD students, wherein the students can learn more about the research process and develop personal connections with each speaker.  
 
The invitees for the Fall 2025 symposium are the following:
  • Kevin Crotty (Rice University)
  • Ricardo De La O (University of Southern California)
  • Clifton Green (Emory University)
  • Samuel Hartzmark (Boston College)
  • Lea Stern (University of Washington)
The invitees for the Spring 2026 symposium are the following:
  • Richard Evans (University of Virginia) 
  • Janet Gao (Georgetown University)
  • Li Jun (University of Texas at Dallas)
  • Eric Kelley (University of Tennessee)
  • Veronika Krepley Pool (Vanderbilt University)

Fall 2025 Symposia Invitees

Headshot of Kevin Crotty

Kevin Crotty (Rice University)

Kevin Crotty is an Associate Professor of Finance. His research studies the relationship between information and valuations in financial markets and how to evaluate performance of intermediaries such as equity analysts, mutual funds, and hedge funds. His scholarly work is published in The Journal of Finance, The Review of Financial Studies, The Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Economics Letters, and The Review of Asset Pricing Studies. In addition to numerous presentations at universities and conferences, Kevin has been invited to present his research at leading asset managers including PanAgora Asset Management, Man Numeric, and Fidelity, as well as the Federal Reserve Board, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Treasury’s Office of Financial Research. He has received the Award for Excellence in Research at Rice Business. Kevin’s teaching focuses on translating financial theory into practice with an emphasis on (1) equity and fixed income valuation modeling and (2) portfolio construction and evaluation. Prior to his doctoral studies, Kevin earned a master’s degree in accounting from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina and worked in corporate accounting for IBM. He holds a Ph.D. in finance from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

Delao headshot

Ricardo Delao (University of Southern California)

Ricardo Delao is an Assistant Professor of Finance and Business Economics at the USC Marshall School of Business, where he has been a faculty member since 2020. His research examines the role of beliefs in asset pricing and the macroeconomic implications of shareholder payout policies. His work has appeared in the Journal of Finance, the Review of Financial Studies, and the Journal of Financial Economics. His broader research interests include behavioral finance, empirical asset pricing, and macroeconomics.
 
Before joining USC, Ricardo earned a Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University. He also worked in wealth management and the oil services industry, experiences that continue to enrich his academic perspective.
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Clifton Green (Emory University)

Clifton Green joined Goizueta Business School in 1999 after completing his PhD at NYU where he taught 1998-1999. His research interests include investments and market microstructure, with an emphasis on behavioral finance. Clifton's research has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Financial Times, and on CNBC television. At Goizueta, Clifton serves teaches the core Corporate Finance class in the BBA program and Behavioral Finance in the PhD program. He has also taught Security Analysis and Portfolio Management in the MBA program.

Headshot of Samuel Hartzmark

Samuel Hartzmark (Boston College)

Samuel M. Hartzmark is a professor in the Seidner Department of Finance at the Boston College Carroll School of Management. He studies asset pricing and behavioral finance and his research has appeared in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies, the Journal of Financial Economics, the Quarterly Journal of Finance, and the Review of Asset Pricing Studies. He has received a number of awards including the DFA prize for best asset pricing paper published in the Journal of Finance; the Exeter prize (the first finance paper to win); the AQR Insight Award; best paper Utah Winter FInance Conference; the Jack Treynor prize; the Research Affiliates Best Paper Award; the Moskowitz Prize; the BNP Paribas Best Paper Award, the Charles Brandes Prize; Best Paper in the Review of Asset Pricing Studies; 2nd prize Fama-DFA award for best paper in asset pricing research in the Journal of Financial Economics; the Hillcrest Behavioral Finance Award in 2015 and 2018; the UBS Global Asset Management Award; the Michael J. Barclay young scholar award; the SIX Best Paper Award Swiss Society for Financial Market Research; and he was a finalist for the 2014 AQR Insight award. His work has been covered by a variety of media outlets including CNBC, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg among others.

Hartzmark holds a Ph.D. from Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California, a MBA from University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and a BA in mathematics/economics (summa cum laude) with a double major in religion from Emory University.
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Lea Stern (University of Washington)

Lea Stern is an Assistant Professor in the Finance and Business Economics Department at the Foster School of Business, University of Washington and Carol Batchelder Endowed Finance Faculty Fellow. Her research leverages machine learning to study inefficiencies in economic agents’ decision making in corporate finance and private equity. Her works have been published in the Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial Intermediation, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings, and Journal of Corporate Finance. She is a co-organizer for the AI & Big Data in Finance Research Forum.

Spring 2026 Symposia Invitees

Headshot of Richard Evans

Richard Evans (University of Virgina)

Richard Evans is the Senior Associate Dean for Research Services and Support and holds the C. Stewart Sheppard Professor of Business Administration at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business. His research deals broadly with investment decisions, and his current research projects explore fund manager compensation and incentives, exchange-traded funds, corporate political activity and stock performance, short-selling and quantitative vs. fundamental investment strategies. His work has been published in the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial Economics and the Review of Financial Studies and has been cited by the financial press (The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist and Forbes) as well as regulatory agencies (Securities and Exchange Commission, U.S. General Accounting Office and the White House Council of Economic Advisors). He has presented his research to the SEC, Federal Reserve, Social Security Administration and the American Finance Association. He currently serves on the editorial board of the Financial Analysts Journal and as the Academic Director of the Money Management Institute's Executive IQ Program. He has also taught executive education courses for investment professionals from Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Sands Capital Management, and Citizens Bank. He has been the recipient of a Santander Research Fellowship at Cambridge University, a Senior Research Fellowship at the Long-Term Investors think tank at the Università di Torino, and he has served as a visiting faculty member at Nova Universidade de Lisboa. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemistry from the University of Utah and a master’s degree and doctorate in finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

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Janet Gao (Georgetown University)

Janet Gao is the Lapeyre Family Associate Professor in Finance at McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University. She was named the Provost’s Distinguished Associate Professor in 2025.

Prior to joining Georgetown University, Janet Gao worked at Indiana University as an Assistant Professor in Finance and was granted tenure. Before joining Indiana University, Janet studied at Cornell University and obtained a degree of PhD in Finance as well as Master of Science in Economics.

Janet's research interests are in the areas of Financial Intermediation, Household Finance, Labor and Finance, and Sustainable Finance. Her work has been published in many top journals, including Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Accounting and Economics, The Accounting Review, Management Science, and Review of Finance.

Janet Gao serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Financial Economics, the Review of Financial Studies, the Journal of Financial Intermediation, and the Journal of Banking and Finance.

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Eric Kelley (University of Tennessee)

Eric Kelley is the Goodner Professor of Finance in the Haslam College of Business at the University of Tennessee. His research analyzes issues in empirical asset pricing and market microstructure, with particular emphasis on how information is incorporated into prices. Eric's research has been published in the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Finance and Quantitative Analysis and the Review of Financial Studies and has been presented at top finance conferences such as the American Finance Association and Western Finance Association annual meetings. Eric is also a Microsoft MVP for his work with Excel. He currently advises a number of Ph.D. students on their dissertations and teaches undergraduate Introductory Finance (for finance majors/collaterals), Excel Tools for Finance, MBA Financial Management and a special topics Ph.D. class.

 
Prior to joining the Haslam College of Business in 2014, Eric spent eight years on the Eller College of Management faculty at the University of Arizona and one year on the faculty at Washington State University. He earned his Ph.D. in finance from Texas A&M University, a M.S. in finance from Texas Tech University and a B.B.A. with a double major in computer information systems and finance from West Texas A&M University. 
Jun Li headshot

Jun Li (University of Texas at Dallas)

Jun Li is an Associate Professor of Finance at the University of Texas at Dallas. His research lies in the area of empirical and theoretical asset pricing and focuses on the linkage between asset returns with firm fundamentals, macroeconomy, and investor behaviors. His works have been published at the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Monetary Economics, Management Science, and Management Information Systems Quarterly.  His research has won Crowell Prize (3x) from PanAgora Asset Management. Li obtained his PhD degree from the University of Minnesota. 

Picture of Veronika K Pool

Veronika K. Pool (Vanderbilt University)

Veronika K. Pool is a Professor of Finance and Justin Potter Chair at the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University. Veronika joined Owen in 2019 from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, where she was an Associate Professor and the Gregg T. and Judith A. Summerville Chair of Finance. Her main research interest is the economics of conflict of interest in delegated portfolios, such as hedge funds, mutual funds, and 401(k) plans. Her research has been published in top finance journals such as the Journal of Finance, the Review of Financial Studies, the Journal of Financial Economics, and the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis.  She previously served as an associate editor of the Review of Financial Studies and is currently an associate editor of Management Science and the Journal of Empirical Finance, and an editor of the Journal of Pension Economics and Finance.  She teaches in the Vanderbilt MS Finance and the MBA programs.

For more information about this event, please contact Jason Sandvik, Associate Professor of Finance at sandvik@arizona.edu