The 2026 IEF/SCOR Foundation for Science award for the Best Young Researcher in Finance and Insurance was presented back in March 2026, during the 19th Financial Risks International Forum in Paris. Organized by Institut Louis Bachelier, the theme of this year’s Forum was “Hidden Financial Risks.”

The 2026 prize was awarded to two recipients: Roxana Dumitrescu, Professor of Applied Mathematics at ENSAE Paris, for her application of medium-range game theory to the electricity market, and Sylvain Carré Professor of Economics at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University, for his use of modeling to shed light on real-world banking and decentralized finance issues. The award was presented by Elyès Jouini, Academic Vice President of the Institut Louis Bachelier, and Philippe Trainar, Director of the SCOR Foundation for Science.

Paul Voss, an associate professor at HEC Paris, also received a special mention for his work on corporate governance. His research focuses in particular on shareholder voting mechanisms, the role of proxy advisors, and the effects of heterogeneous investor preferences on corporate collective decisions. 

Philippe Trainar, Director of the SCOR Foundation for Science, commented: “This award recognizes exceptional contributions to academic research in finance and insurance and is well deserved by the recipients for their insightful and impactful work”.

The Institut Europlace de Finance (IEF) launched The Best Young Researcher Award in 2005 for promising researchers under the age of 40. The “Best Young Researcher in Finance and Insurance” award has been sponsored by the SCOR Foundation for Science since 2016. 

About the winners

Roxana Dumitrescu

Roxana Dumitrescu, a Professor at the Institut Polytechnique de Paris, conducts research in applied mathematics focused on medium-range game theory. Her work focuses in particular on the electricity market and issues related to the energy transition. She is interested in how individual behaviors can be coordinated through incentive mechanisms and price signals to collectively improve the efficiency of the electricity system in a context marked by the rise of renewable energy.

Sylvain Carré

Sylvain Carré, a Professor at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University, uses economic modeling to analyze real-world issues related to the banking sector and decentralized finance. His research has focused in particular on the transparency of bank stress tests following the 2007–2009 financial crisis, as well as on the effectiveness of sanctions for insider trading. More recently, he has been working on lending mechanisms in blockchain and decentralized finance, with the goal of reducing borrowing costs and improving the efficiency of financial protocols.

About the Institut Europlace de Finance and the Louis Bachelier Group network

Institut Europlace de Finance (IEF), Fondation du Risque (FdR) and Institut Louis Bachelier (ILB) form together the Louis Bachelier Group. The backbone of the Louis Bachelier Group (ILB, FdR, IEF) and its network is research that aims to promote sustainable development in Economics and Finance. The Louis Bachelier Group currently hosts more than 60 research programmes within four main societal transitions: environmental, digital, demographic and financial. www.institutlouisbachelier.org

About the SCOR Foundation for Science

The mission of the Foundation is to support scientific research. The SCOR Corporate Foundation for Science lends its support to various kinds of risk and (re)insurance-related projects, including university chairs, research projects, conferences and publications.
foundation.scor.com.