Junior Academics Research Seminars (JARS) in Finance

Jing (Sophia) Xue is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Finance at the Smith School of Business, University of Maryland. Her supervisors are Vojislav (Max) Maksimovic and Liu Yang. Her research interests are in the areas of corporate finance, innovation, labor and finance, entrepreneurship, and FinTech. Starting from August 2023, she will be joining the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University as an Assistant Professor of Finance. 

Valeria Fedyk graduated from Stanford University with a double major in Economics with Honors and Mathematics, and a minor in Computer Science. Following graduation, Valeria worked in investment banking at J.P. Morgan and in a research and product management capacity on the Global Stock Selection (GSS) team at AQR Capital Management. Valeria frequently relies on her industry experience in her research, which includes studying the major determinants of investor flows into separate account investment vehicles; identifying the investing preferences and behavioral biases of Robinhood investors; and demonstrating how country-level meritocracy perception can affect asset prices. In her Finance PhD program at the London Business School (UK), Valeria's primary areas of interest include Asset Pricing, Behavioral Finance and Investment Management. Valeria holds the CFA and CAIA financial certifications. 

Taisiya Sikorskaya is a PhD Candidate in Finance at London Business School. Her research focuses on how intermediaries affect asset prices. Specifically, her current work explores the implications of compensation contracts in asset management, retail trading in options, and primary markets of exchange-traded funds. She has published in the Journal of Finance and the Review of Financial Studies. Prior to starting her PhD at London Business School, Taisiya worked in Asset Management in Switzerland and the UK. She completed her MA in Quantitative Economics and Finance at the University of St. Gallen (Switzerland) and MSc in Operations Research at Chelyabinsk State University (Russia).