PhD in administration - Financial Engineering

Be part of a community of multidisciplinary researchers, with solid internationally recognized expertise.

Do your PhD in a rigorous milieu, renowned for its resources and the quality of support available for junior researchers.

Your PhD in short

• Offered by HEC Montréal jointly with Concordia and McGill universities and the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). This partnership gives you access to resources (faculty and courses) rarely available elsewhere in the world.
• This specialization offers a variety of high-level courses in finance and mathematics. The mathematics courses are recognized by the Institut des sciences mathématiques (ISM) and may be taken by PhD in mathematics students at the main universities in the region.
• Full-time program allowing you to complete your studies in 4 years.
• Tuition fees waived and competitive funding for the first four years of your studies.

For a career in academia or business

Around 40% of graduates from this specialization between 2006 to 2022 hold positions as professors at universities in Canada or the United States.

The others are working as executives or consultants for leading firms or investment funds, e.g. Deloitte, KPMG, PSP Investment and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

Among the best

The work of PhD students in the Financial Engineering specialization has been recognized for its outstanding quality and has earned them many awards and scholarships:

• awards for the best PhD dissertation in 2008 and 2014
• two Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarships from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), in 2010 and 2012
• four Bourse de Montréal awards, in 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2018
• a scholarship from the Society of Actuaries
• a “Women in Finance” scholarship from the National Bank

Papers based on dissertations by PhD students in the Financial Engineering specialization are published in top-tier journals in the field, including:

• European Journal of Operational Research
• Journal of Banking and Finance
• Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control
• Journal of Risk and Insurance
• The Energy Journal
• The Review of Financial Studies
• Quantitative Finance

Varied research interests

Our PhD students and candidates

See the list of students in this specialization on Google Scholar.

Top-flight research infrastructure

PhD students in this specialization benefit from the best possible infrastructure, allowing them to carry out advanced research in financial engineering.

World-class research in financial engineering

HEC Montréal offers doctoral students in financial engineering an exceptional scientific milieu, with a research chair and two professorships.

• Canada Research Chair in Decision Making Under Uncertainty, held by Professor Érick Delage
• Canada Research Chair in Risk Management, directed by Professor Georges Dionne
• Research Professorship in derivatives analysis: Professor Jean-Guy Simonato
• Research Professorship in Financial Engineering: Professor Geneviève Gauthier
• Research Professorship in financial risk factors and derivatives: Professor Christian Dorion
• Research Professorship in Sentometrics: Professor David Ardia
• Research Professorship in statistics: Professor Debbie J. Dupuis

The professors are members of various internationally renowned research centres or institutes:

• Canadian Derivatives Institute
• Centre for Interuniversity Research and Analysis on Organizations (CIRANO)
• Centre de recherches mathématiques (CRM)
• Group for Research in Decision Analysis (GERAD)

All the members of the Decision Sciences group have individual grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) .

An internationally renowned multidisciplinary team

Members of the Department of Decision Sciences associated with the Financial Engineering specialization

• David Ardia
• Hatem Ben Ameur
• Michèle Breton
• Michel Denault
• Debbie Dupuis
• Dena Firoozi
• Geneviève Gauthier
• Chantal Labbé

Members of the Department of Finance associated with the Financial Engineering specialization

• Tolga Cenesizoglu
• Philippe d’Astous
• Georges Dionne
• Christian Dorion
• Pascal François
• Pascale Valery
• Simon van Norden
• Jean-Guy Simonato