people

Igor Cialenco is a Full Professor of Applied Mathematics at the Illinois Institute of Technology, specializing in stochastic modeling, mathematical and environmental finance, statistical inference and stochastic control, .

His research, sponsored by NSF, focuses on developing quantitative tools for analyzing uncertainty, long‑term risk, and fairness in systems governed by complex environmental and economic interactions. He has been training scientists to apply rigorous mathematical and statistacal methods to policy‑relevant environmental and regulatory challenges.

He held leadership roles within SIAM Activity Group on Financial Mathematics and Engineering, serves on multiple editorial boards in applied mathematics and finance, and have directed graduate programs in applied mathematics at Illinois Tech.

Mike Ludkovski is a Professor of Statistics and Applied Probability at University of California Santa Barbara where he co-directs the Center for Financial Mathematics and Actuarial Research.

Among his research interests are renewable energy markets, and groundwater markets. He also works on Gaussian process models, stochastic control, computational finance and mortality analysis. His research has been supported by NSF, DOE, ARPA- E among others and includes over 70 peer-reviewed publications. He has worked in the area of stochastic models for energy finance for 15+ years, including co-editing a Springer volume on “Commodities, Energy and Environmental Finance” and teaching multiple summer mini-courses on this topic. He holds a Ph.D. in Operations Research and Financial Engineering from Princeton University and has held visiting positions at London School of Economics and Paris Dauphine University.

Paul Balea is an undergraduate student at the Illinois Institute of Technology pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Data Science and a master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence. His research under Professor Igor Cialenco focuses on collecting, cleaning and structuring California water rights transaction data, and developing data visualizations to quantitatively analyze temporal patterns and network dynamics in water rights trading.

Ishaan Goel is an undergraduate student at the Illinois Institute of Technology pursuing bachelor’s degrees in Applied Mathematics and Data Science, as well as a master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence and a minor in Finance. His academic interests include stochastic modeling, optimization, and machine learning, especially as they relate to financial systems and linguistics. His current research with Professor Igor Cialenco focuses on applying reinforcement learning methods to compute Nash equilibria in markets for limited natural resources.

John Robin Inston is a PhD candidate in the department of statistics and applied probability at the University of California Santa Barbara. His research interests lie within the intersection of financial mathematics, stochastic games, probability theory and groundwater conservation.

Gael Dimitri Tekam Fongouo is a PhD candidate in Applied Mathematics at Illinois Tech specializing in multi period stochastic game theory and quantitative modeling. His current research, supervised by Professor Igor Cialenco, focuses on developing rigorous mathematical frameworks for the computation of dynamic Nash Equilibria in stochastic games. The techniques advance tools for multi-period stochastic Nash game and financial problems by paralleling equilibrium pricing procedures in derivatives markets, portfolio allocation, and optimization.