Geoff Harris
“If you ask a student to memorize a result, he may be able to reproduce it on your exam, but will forget it after your course ends. If you teach the student a technique, he may remember it for a few years, and might apply it to solve a problem. If you help the student to develop his ability to think critically and creatively, he will be best equipped, throughout his life, to solve any problem, learning on his own or deriving the techniques and tools that are needed.”
Notable Vignette
I teach material that is quite technical and mathematically advanced in my financial modeling courses. In these classes, there are students who simply amaze me, with their profound questions, their mastery of the material and their enthusiasm. Nevertheless, because of the technical nature of my classes, some students have difficulty with the material that I teach. It is always a joy to teach students who excel. I’ve gotten the most fulfillment, however, in working with students who found my courses very difficult, struggled with the material and ultimately succeeded, with a great deal of perseverance, to learn much of what I was teaching.
IIT Stuart Students
The students here are wonderful, enthusiastic and intellectually curious. They ask questions that challenge me intellectually, and motivate me to think in deeper ways about the material that I am teaching.
My Teaching Philosophy
To do good quantitative work in finance, you have to have the ability to think clearly and analytically, but intuitively as well; to do great work, you also need a spark of creativity. In teaching, I hope to foster these abilities. In class, I strive to inspire and clarify in my lectures. Most of the progress that students will make will takes place outside of class. I therefore put a great deal of effort into developing problems and projects that are both practically relevant (many are based on my experience in industry) and challenge my students’ ability to think analytically and creatively. Ultimately, I hope that students will apply these skills not only to solving technical problems, but to thinking about big-picture issues. For instance, a student coming out of my courses might learn how to price and structure a complex derivative. Better yet, if they can understand the implications for clients, financial institutions and the economy of transacting the structures that they are modeling.
My Teaching/Research Interests
My teaching focuses on derivatives, particularly fixed-income, and mathematical and computational techniques used in financial modeling. My research spans the areas of derivatives and credit risk. I came to finance from physics, and have always appreciated the elegance of mathematics, while wanting to work on an area that has a real impact on people’s lives. Indeed, there is a great aesthetic beauty to much of the work in modern finance, but it is highly practical. My research is relevant to assessing the risks that financial counterparties (banks) assume when executing derivatives transactions. These risks have played a significant role in the credit crisis of 2008-2009.
