Didier Sornette is a full professor of entrepreneurial risks at the Department of Management, Technology, and Economics at ETH Zurich.
He specializes in major risks and extreme hazards. His research focuses on the prediction of complex systems and is applied in finance, business administration, insurance, and in dealing with material failures, medical hazards, earthquakes, and landslides.
Didier Sornette’s lecture topics
- Geopolitical Change – How the global financial world is changing
- Risk Management in the Financial Market – What the new government standards mean for financial institutions
- Data-driven Analysis – How we can better predict crises and extreme events in the economy and financial world
- The “Dragon King” – Predicting natural events and global crises
- Financial economics – Inflation, wars, and customs policy: The US, China, Europe, and the influence of the BRIC countries on global change
Didier Sornette is the author of over 500 scientific publications and seven books.
Much of Professor Sornette’s research is based on the hypothesis that the most extreme risks (and profits) are so-called “dragon kings,” meaning that they are almost always the result of maturation and development toward critical instability, with measurable signs at the technical and/or socioeconomic level.
Didier Sornette: “How we can predict the next financial crisis!”
This leads to a research agenda that focuses on predicting crises and extreme events in complex systems, in particular on diagnosing systemic instabilities. Other extreme events with more positive effects to which the same methodology can be applied include Hollywood blockbusters, major commercial successes, and major technological breakthroughs and innovations.
Didier Sornette uses strictly data-based, mathematical-statistical analyses in combination with nonlinear, multivariable dynamic models that also take positive and negative feedback into account.
Other areas of application include earthquake prediction and geophysics, finance and the theory of complex systems, the success dynamics of social networks, and complex systems in medicine (immune system, epilepsy, etc.). In 2008, Didier Sornette launched the Financial Crisis Observatory at ETH Zurich to test the hypothesis that financial bubbles can be diagnosed in real time and their end predicted using probability theory.
When asked about his hobbies, Professor Sornette points out that many of the topics and fields of knowledge he deals with are actually hobbies. When he gets “tired” of a topic, he finds refreshment and rejuvenation by taking on a new scientific challenge.
Didier Sornette consciously adheres to the seven principles he lists in his “performance article,” such as sleeping well, drinking plenty of water, loving intensely, He participates in high-level sports (skiing, snowboarding, water skiing, and wakeboarding), follows a special diet, and attaches great importance to “playfulness” in everything he does and in his research team at ETH Zurich and worldwide.