Week of January 12 - 16

Wednesday, January 14

 3:30 STATISTICS SEMINAR  - Room 459 MSC
      Organizational meeting for seminar by Dr. Jiahua Chen from 
      the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science at the 
      University of Waterloo.

Friday, January 16

 3:30 Coffee
 3:45 COLLOQUIUM  - Room 459 MSC
      Josef Blass, Dept. of Mathematics and Statistics, BGSU. 
      "Black-Scholes Formula"
      Abstract:  In 1972 Fischer Black and Myron Scholes developed a
        formula for the valuation of option prices.

        Remarkably the mathematics of the proof is considered by many
        as one of the greatest discoveries of twentieth century
        economics.  In the fall of 1997 Robert Merton and Myron
        Scholes shared the Nobel Prize in Economics for their
        contribution to option pricing.

        In this talk, we will give insight into the formula involving
        discrete, continuous, and finally stochastic approaches to the
        valuation of contingent liabilities.

      AMS web page on the Nobel award