September 16, 2020
A $400,000 gift from local company Radix Trading, LLC will support PhD students in the Departments of Mathematics, Physics, Statistics, and Astronomy & Astrophysics at the University of Chicago. Radix’s contribution is part of the PSD Fellowship Challenge and will be matched dollar-for-dollar by an anonymous challenge donor. Together, this $800,000 in gifts will name the Radix Trading Fellows—a cohort of 20 students for the 2020-21 academic year.
“We are immensely grateful to Radix Trading and alumnus and PSD Council member, Ben Blander, for their continued support of mathematics students,” said Angela Olinto, Dean of the Physical Sciences Division. “In 2018, Radix established a prize for outstanding mathematics students who are close to completing their PhDs. This year, they made an additional gift to increase the impact of the Radix Prize in Mathematics and answered our call for help through the PSD Fellowship Challenge. We look forward to supporting the new Radix Trading Fellows.”
Benjamin Blander, LAB ’95, SB ’98, SM ’98, PhD ‘03 (Mathematics), is a Managing Member at Radix Trading LLC, focusing on quantitative research and scientific trading. Radix is one of the most active liquidity providers on global electronic exchanges. Blander joined the PSD Council in 2019 and has supported the Department of Mathematics with his personal philanthropy and through his company.
“At Radix, we’re constantly evolving our strategies and developing new ones through innovative machine learning and statistical methodologies,” Blander said. “We feel that it is important to support the student scientists developing and learning these methods, and we hope that through this gift our relationship with the University of Chicago’s Physical Sciences Division will strengthen and grow.”
The 20 Radix Trading Fellows will be named at the start of Autumn Quarter. These students will receive additional funding for the 2020-21 academic year, and will be invited to networking and cohort-building events throughout the year.