Didier Sornette

Didier Sornette is Professor on the Chair of Entrepreneurial Risks at ETH Zurich since 2006, with concurrent affiliations as Professor at the Swiss Finance Institute, Special Professor at Tokyo Tech's Institute of Innovative Research, and Chair Professor (part-time) at Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) in China. He founded the Financial Crisis Observatory (FCO) in 2008 to rigorously test financial market predictability during bubbles and co-developed the collaborative platform xYotta since 2012.

• Research Focus: Predictability and control of crises in complex systems, including financial crashes, earthquakes, social network dynamics, and medical applications (immune systems, epilepsy).
• Key Concept: Coined 'Dragon-kings' to describe extreme events with identifiable precursors, emphasizing their predictability.

Scientific Awards

• AAAS Fellow (2013)
• Member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences (2019)
• E. N. Lorenz Lecture (2010), Ehrenfest Colloquium (2011)

He has mentored 36 PhD students, supervised 120 master theses, and guided 38 post-docs (as of December 2019).