Sam Adams joined the Ph.D. program at the University of Tennessee in the fall of 2019. He received his BSBA in finance from the University of Arkansas and his MS in quantitative financial economics from Oklahoma State University. Sam worked as a fixed income analyst at Oaklawn Investments between his undergraduate and graduate degrees. His research interests include market microstructure and banking.

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David Andrews joined the Ph.D. program at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in fall 2022. He received his B.A. in Economics from Elon University and worked as a financial representative for Northwestern Mutual and as a data analyst for ABB Inc. David’s research interests include asset pricing, behavioral finance, crypto currency and alternative investments such as collectibles and commodities.

Dipesh Bhattarai joined the UT Department of Finance Ph.D. program in August 2019. He received a Master’s of Business Administration at Mississippi State University, where he worked as a graduate teaching assistant. Dipesh earned a Bachelor’s of Business Administration with specialization in banking and finance from Pokhara University, Nepal. His research interest includes banking, international finance, and corporate finance.

Tim Dong joined the UT Department of Finance Ph.D. program in August 2021. He received his master’s degree in financial mathematics from Rochester Institute of Technology. Outside of academia, he has worked as a freelance consultant for a quant hedge fund. His research interests include asset pricing, market microstructure and financial technology.

Connor Kasten joined the University of Tennessee’s Department of Finance Ph.D. program in August 2018. He earned his Bachelor of Business Administration in both economics and finance from Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, GA. Immediately prior to joining the doctoral program, he worked as a financial advisor and served clients by assisting them in retirement, education, estate, and insurance planning. His research interests include investments, financial intermediation, retirement and employee benefits, retail investors, and behavioral finance. His research has been accepted at the Eastern Finance Association (EFA) where he received a Distinguished Student Paper Award for this work on retirement provider relationships in the corporate loan market. His work has also been accepted to the Financial Management Association (FMA) conferences and has been nominated for Best Paper Awards in both Market Microstructure and Investments.

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Zhengzhuo (Zyaire) Li joined the finance Ph.D. program at the University of Tennessee in August 2021. He received a master’s degree in business analytics from Wake Forest University, where he worked as a research assistant. Zhengzhuo also earned his bachelor’s degree in management from Tulane University. His research interests include corporate finance, corporate governance and international finance.

Banks Osborne joined the finance Ph.D. program at the University of Tennessee in August 2020. Prior to joining the department, he worked as a data science graduate research assistant and an instructor of statistics while earning his M.S. in mathematics at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW), where he earlier earned his B.A. in economics and B.S in mathematics. Outside of academia, he has worked as a statistical consultant. He is interested in the implications of financial technology (fintech) for corporate finance, and his research tends to focus on cyber risk, marketplace lending and innovation. Personal Website

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Roman Paolucci joined the Ph.D. program at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in fall 2022. He received his B.S. in quantitative finance and mathematics from James Madison University and worked as a quantitative researcher at Bloomberg LP. Roman’s research interests include asset pricing, market microstructure, machine learning and natural language processing.

Wenxuan (Laura) Sun joined the finance Ph.D. program at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in August 2022. Prior to joining the department, she worked as a credit analyst. She received her M.S. in Quantitative Finance and Risk Analysis from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She also earned her bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Xi'an International Studies University.

Jack Wang entered the finance doctoral program in the Fall of 2017. He received an undergraduate finance degree from Shaanxi Normal University in Xi’an, China. Guanhuan then continued his education at the Southern Methodist University. He earned the Master’s of Science in Finance while serving as a research assistant.