People

Emanuel Derman

Emanuel Derman

Formal First Name
Emanuel
Dates
1946 - present

Emanuel Derman is a Professor of Professional Practice and Director of the Financial Engineering Program at Columbia University. Earlier in his career, he worked on Wall Street, running quantitative strategies research groups in fixed income, equities, and risk management. He developed the Black-Derman-Toy interest rate model and the Derman-Kani local volatility model, two financial models that have become industry standards today. Derman also published countless articles in elementary particle physics, finance, and computer science.

Professional Experience


Academic History

  • Derman was born in South Africa.
  • He has lived most of his professional life in Manhattan in New York City.
  • He started out as a theoretical physicist, doing research on unified theories of elementary particle interactions. 
  • At AT&T Bell Laboratories in the 1980s, he developed programming languages for business modeling.
  • He was named the SunGard/IAFE Financial Engineer of the Year in 2000. 
  • He has appeared as a guest on Real Vision.