Tapiero's "Risk"-y new venture

How is risk defined, measured, analyzed, valued and managed?

This is a question with which Poly’s Charles Tapiero and his colleague from the University of Texas at Dallas, Alain Bensoussan, will grapple in their new jobs as co-editors-in-chief of Risk and Decision Analysis, an academic journal that debuts later this year.

The new journal aims to create greater awareness of this burgeoning field by providing a forum for academics and practitioners to publish their advanced quantitative, statistical research and reports on non-quantitative research. By bridging the gap between theory and practice, RD&A will emphasize the convergence of risk, finance and a broad number of professions that are beset by risk.

“Advances in risk mathematics and the interdependence of financial, operational, social and environmental factors in a globalized economy make risk and decision analysis essential to everyday life,” Tapiero said. “This journal was born of the conviction that government and industry must evaluate and manage risk as a fact, not an option, of life.”

Tapiero is the founder and chair of Poly’s department of finance and risk engineering, which has grown by leap and bounds into the largest program of its kind, with 300 master’s degree students in financial engineering. He joined the Poly faculty in 2005 as the Morton L. Topfer chair and distinguished professor of financial engineering and technology management.

Bensoussan, is a distinguished professor at UT Dallas and the director of its International Center for Decision and Risk Analysis. He is a former head of INRIA (the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control), CNES (the French Space Agency) and ESA (the European Space Agency).