Research Center

REZA

Hometown: Hamadan, Iran

Major / Minor Ph.D. in Economics/ Master in Finance

Extracurricular Activities @ U of I: Work and thesis do not leave me enough time for any other activities right now!

Favorite Class @ U of I: Financial Engineering I (Neil Pearson) and Advanced Corporate Finance (Scott Weisbenner).

Hobbies: Listening(!) and reading books, watching movies, biking, volleyball and badminton!

Favorite Quote:
Human beings are members of a whole,
In creation of one essence and soul.
If one member is afflicted with pain,
Other members uneasy will remain.
If you have no sympathy for human pain,
The name of human you cannot retain.

Saadi, the great Persian poet.
(This poem is written on the entrance of the Hall of Nations of the UN building in New York)

Hero/Role Model: I don’t have a role model (maybe I had one when I was a kid, bur I don’t remember it).

Favorite Restaurant in C-U: Red Lobster and Olive Garden.

Favorite Music: Persian music and classic music.

Favorite Movies: Godfather (I & II), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Casablanca.

Favorite TV Shows: I don't watch TV! Maybe 10 hours per year if I have to!!!

Best college advice: Follow your passion. Study hard but at the same time don’t lose the valuable experiences that exist in extracurricular activities.

Project Work @ RC:  Dynamic Risk Modeling. As the name implies, I'm trying to model the risks of State Farm’s underwriting and investment lines of business and give a quantitative measure of the total risk. The challenging part of this is how to account for taxes, given the complexity of tax codes and limited availability of information.

What brought you to the RC? Attending a SAS workshop brought me to the Research Center and I talked to the staff and realized that they need someone who knows a little bit of economics. I applied and a few months later, I was there!

Best thing about working at the RC: Friendly, energetic and very dynamic environment…in addition to very good staff.

Most surprising thing you’ve learned about State Farm: that it has a huge investment portfolio under its management.

Life Aspirations: I’d like to have my own business someday so I have the liberty of taking time off anytime and travel around the world.