Innovative Fintech Research & Extensive Academic Offerings

Our faculty span a wide range of disciplines that defy typical fintech definitions, and our students enter the marketplace as field-tested leaders.

Cornell SC Johnson College of Business faculty combine deep strengths in finance and data science—and expertise in fields as diverse as supply chain, climate impact, international banking, cryptocurrencies, and more—to break new ground. Our students can fluently navigate fintech’s complex opportunities and implications for the financial services industry, the other sectors it touches, and the societies it affects.

Fintech Leadership

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Will Cong, PhD, Faculty Director

Susan Jacobs

Susan JosephJD/MBA, Executive Director

Faculty Breadth and Distinction

With over thirty fintech-affiliated faculty members, the SC Johnson College has a comparatively large and accomplished group of fintech scholars. Our faculty experts have published on a wide range of fintech topics, including cryptocurrency transaction fees, blockchain disruptions, peer-to-peer fintech lending markets, crowdfunding platform design, the future of central bank digital currencies, big data, social media and markets, and many others.

An Unparalleled Educational Experience

The student experience across our undergraduate and graduate programs is rich with industry immersion and engagement. Students often engage with industry innovators during classroom lectures and through on-site treks, company visits, and conferences. A hallmark offering is our seven-week Fintech Intensive in NYC, which exposes MBA students to startup ideas and ventures, technical concepts, industry leadership, and case studies of tech applications in multiple areas of financial services.

Depth in Data and Technology

Within and beyond fintech, our students and faculty are steeped in the use of data analytics to inform strategy and decisions. They partner fluently with computer scientists, developers, engineers, and other tech-forward thinkers and doers and know how to realize the business and consumer potential of tech innovations. For example, the SC Johnson College offers seven STEM-designated graduate degree programs and a Digital Technology Immersion for MBAs.

Engaged, Entrepreneurial Students

Our students are academically accomplished and personally driven self-starters who don’t hesitate to create new pathways and connections. They’ve embraced the fintech transformation with characteristic enthusiasm, becoming valued and supportive collaborators with faculty, business leaders, and one another. Our MBAs created the Blockchain and Innovation club, while Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration undergraduates founded the campuswide Cornell Blockchain club and championed the first Cornell Blockchain Conference.

Across the college and its networks, our community is active and engaged in fintech research, outreach, curriculum, events, clubs, and more.

Johnson MBA Student Organization

Blockchain and Innovation Club

This Johnson MBA club offers opportunities to network with specialists from the fintech industry and to engage in blockchain-based business initiatives.

Executive Education Online Course

Trends in Fintech

In this online course, participants analyze five major financial vertical markets in the fintech sector: robo-advising, peer-to-peer lending, insurance tech, currency and payment tech, and digital banking.

MBA Curriculum 7-Week NYC Intensive

Fintech Intensive

The Fintech Intensive at Cornell Tech comprises four courses led by distinguished fintech experts. MBAs complete a real field project, interact with industry leaders, and have the opportunity to present early-stage fintech business ideas in a business plan competition.

Journal of Financial Economics Published Research

From Mining to Markets: The Evolution of Bitcoin Transaction Fees

In this co-authored paper, Maureen O’Hara (Johnson) investigates the role that transaction fees play in the Bitcoin blockchain’s evolution from a mining-based structure to a market-based ecology.

Undergraduate Conference Student Organization

Cornell Blockchain Conference

Founded by undergraduates in the Cornell Nolan School, the Cornell Blockchain club hosts an annual NYC conference that has featured fintech industry leaders and highlighted platforms, regulation, security tokens, and more.

Subcommittee on monetary policy & trade U.S. Congressional Testimony

The Future of Money: Digital Currency

Eswar Prasad (Dyson) presents his views on the potential role of digital currencies in the U.S. economy and financial system. His testimony focuses on implications of the evolution of new financial technologies, including cryptocurrencies, for central banking.

Faculty Excellence

Over thirty Cornell SC Johnson College of Business faculty are fintech-affiliated scholars, educators, and influencers. Active across the spectrum from small business to the global economy, our faculty experts have published on a wide range of fintech topics, including transaction fees in cryptocurrencies, blockchain disruptions, peer-to-peer fintech lending markets, crowdfunding platform design, the future of central bank digital currencies, big data, social media and markets, and many others.

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Will Cong

Faculty Director, Fintech at Cornell Initiative; Rudd Family Professor of Management and Associate Professor of Finance, Johnson
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Dan Awrey

Professor, Cornell Law

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Elena Belavina

Associate Professor of Operations, Technology, and Information Management, Nolan
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Khaled Boughanmi

Assistant Professor of Marketing and Management Communication, Johnson
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Murillo Campello

Lewis H. Durland Professor of Management, Johnson
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Lourdes Casanova

Senior Lecturer and the Gail and Roberto Cañizares Director of the Emerging Markets Institute
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Li Chen

Breazzano Family Term Professor of Management, Johnson
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Ya-Ru Chen

Academic Dean of China Initiatives, Johnson
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Matthew D’Amore

Associate Dean and Professor of Practice, Cornell Tech
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Vishal Gaur

Emerson Professor of Manufacturing Management, Johnson
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Karan Girotra

Charles H. Dyson Family Professor of Management Chair, Cornell Tech
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James Grimmelman

Tessler Family Professor of Digital and Information Law, Cornell Tech and Cornell Law
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Robert Jarrow

Ronald P. Lynch Professor of Investment Management, Johnson
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Lawrence Jin

Associate Professor of Finance, Dyson
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Justin Johnson

Deane W. Malott Professor of Management, Johnson
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Ari Juels

Weill Family Foundation and Joan and Sanford I. Weill Professor, Cornell Tech
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Vrinda Kadiyali

Director of Graduate Studies for the Graduate Field of Management, Johnson
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Andrew Karolyi

Charles Field Knight Dean of the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business; Harold Bierman, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Management, Johnson
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Margaret (Peggy) Kingsley

Instructor, NYC FinTech Intensive;  Corporate Finance Senior Vice president, M&T Bank
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Sarah Kreps

Director, Cornell Tech Policy Lab; John L. Wetherill Professor of Government; Adjunct Professor of Law, Cornell
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Marcos Lopez de Prado

Professor of Practice, Cornell College of Engineering; Global Head of Quantitative Research, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority
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Peng Liu

Director of Real Estate and Singapore Tourism Board; Distinguished Professor in Asian Hospitality, Nolan
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Yao Lu

Assistant Professor of Accounting, Johnson
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Pamela Moulton

Associate Professor of Finance, Nolan
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Maureen O’Hara

Robert W. Purcell Professor of Finance, Johnson
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Young-Hoon Park

Sung-Whan Suh Professor of Management, Johnson
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Drew Pascarella

Rempe Wilson Distinguished Lecturer of Finance; Associate Dean of MBA Programs; Founder of the Fintech Intensive, Johnson
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Rafael Pass

Professor of Computer Science, Cornell Tech
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Eswar Prasad

Nandlal P. Tolani Senior Professor of International Trade Policy, Dyson
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Omid Rafieian

Demir Sabanci Faculty Fellow of Marketing and Management; Assistant Professor of Marketing and Management Communication, Johnson
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Kristina Rennekamp

Associate Professor of Accounting, Johnson
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Gideon Saar

Dr. Philip and Rosalyn Professor of Management and Professor of Finance, Johnson
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Charles Whitehead

Myron C. Taylor Alumni Professor of Business Law, Cornell Law
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Nathan Yang

Assistant Professor of Marketing, Dyson
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Mao Ye

Associate Professor of Finance, Johnson
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Yian Yin

Assistant Professor of Information Science, Bowers CIS, Cornell University

External Research Fellows

Across the college and its networks, our community is active and engaged in fintech research, outreach, curriculum, events, clubs, and more.

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Daron Acemoglu

Institute Professor, MIT
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Sumit Agarwal

Low Tuck Kwong Distinguished Professor of Finance, Professor of Economics and Real Estate, National University of Singapore
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Tania Babina

Assistant Professor of Finance, Columbia Business School
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Bruno Biais

Professor, HEC Paris
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Markus Brunnermeier

Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Economics, Princeton
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Agostino Capponi

Associate Professor, Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, Columbia University
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Francesco D'Acunto

A. James Clark Chair and Associate Professor of Finance, McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University
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Darrell Duffie

Distinguished Professor of Management and Professor of Finance, Stanford Graduate School of Business
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Jianqing Fan

Frederick L. Moore '18 Professor of Finance, Princeton University

Jianqing Fan

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Itay Fainmesser

Associate Professor, Carey Business School and Economics Department, The Johns Hopkins University
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Maryam Farboodi

Jon D. Gruber Career Development Professor, Assistant Professor of Finance, MIT
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Gavin FENG Guanhao

Assistant Professor of Business Statistics, City University of Hong Kong

Assistant Professor of Business Statistics, City University of Hong Kong

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Itay Goldstein

Joel S. Ehrenkranz Family Professor, Professor of Finance, Professor of Economics, Wharton School of Business
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Hanna Halaburda

Associate Professor of Technology, Operations, and Statistics, NYU Stern
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Zhiguo He

Fuji Bank and Heller Professor of Finance, Jeuck Faculty Fellow, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business
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Yael Hochberg

Head, Rice University Entrepreneurship Initiative and Ralph S. O'Connor Professor in Entrepreneurship, Jones Graduate School of Business, Rice University
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Xiang Hui

Assistant Professor, Washington University, St. Louis
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Shota Ichihashi

Assistant Professor, Queen's University Department of Economics
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Urban Jermann

Safra Professor of International Finance and Capital Markets, Professor of Economics Professor of Finance, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
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Wei Jiang

Arthur E. Burns Professor of Free and Competitive Enterprise, Columbia Business School
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Bryan Kelly

Professor of Finance, Yale School of Management
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Josh Lerner

Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking, Harvard Business School
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Bo Li

Assistant Professor in Computer Science, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign
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Kai Li

Professor and W.M. Young Chair in Finance, UBC Sauder School of Business
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Ye Li

Assistant Professor/William W. Alberts Endowed Professor in Finance, Foster School of Business, University of Washington
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Gordon Liao

Chief Economist, Circle Internet Financial, LLC
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Laura Liu

Professor of Finance, Peking University
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Evgeny Lyandres

Professor, Tel Aviv University
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Ma, Song

Professor of Finance and Entrepreneurship, Yale University and NBER
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Simon Mayer

Assistant Professor of Finance, HEC Paris
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Christine Parlour

Professor and Sylvan C. Coleman Chair in Finance and Accounting, Berkeley Haas
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Markus Pelger

Assistant Professor of Management, Reid and Polly Anderson Faculty Fellow, Stanford University
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Manju Puri

J.B. Fuqua Professor, The Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
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Uday Rajan

David B. Hermelin Professor of Business Administration, Professor of finance and Chair, Finance Area, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan
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Alberto Rossi

Provost Distinguished Associate Professor of Finance, Associate Director, Center for Financial Markets and Policy, Georgetown University
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Fahad Saleh

Incoming Associate Professor of Finance, University of Florida
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Lee Schneider

General Counsel, Ava Labs and Co-founder, Owl Explains
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Antoinette Schoar

Stewart C. Myers-Horn Family Professor of Finance, Sloan School of Business, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Azeem Shaikh

Ralph and Mary Otis isham Professor in Economics and the College and Thornber Research Felllow, University of Chicago
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Suraj Srinivasan

Philip J. Stomberg Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School
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Johannes Stroebel

David S. Loeb Professor of Finance, NYU Stern School of Business
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Rob Townsend

Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics, MIT
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Gerry Tsoukalas

Associate Professor, Boston University; Senior Fellow, The Wharton School; Fellow, The Luohan Academy
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Aleh Tsyvinski

Arthur M. Okin Professor of Economics, Yale University
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Toni Whited

Professor of Economics, University of Michigan
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Kairong Xiao

Roger F. Murray Associate Professor of Business, Columbia Business School
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Wei Xiong

John H. Scully '66 Professor in Finance, Professor of Economics, Princeton University
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Dacheng Xiu

Professor of Econometrics and Statistics, Chicago Booth
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Baozhong Yang

Talmage Dobbs Jr. Chair in Finance, Associate Professor of Finance, J. Mack Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University
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Liyan Yang

Professor of Finance, Foundation Chair in Investment Strategy, Rotman School of Business, University of Toronto
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David Yermack

Albert Fingerhut Professor of Finance and Business Transformation, NYU Stern
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Xiaoyan Zhang

Associate Dean, Xinyuan Professor of Finance, Deputy Director of Tsinghua University National Institute of Financial Research, Deputy Director of Tsinghua Fintech Research Institute, Director of Xinyuan Fintech Research Center, Tsinghua PBCSF