Andrew Lo, a professor at MIT Sloan School of Management and investigator at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, has been seeking to find out why so many bad decisions were made on Wall Street leading up to the financial crisis. Lo, along with Thomas J. Brennan, a law professor at Northwestern, says the evolution of the human mind may explain a blind faith that housing values will rise and that mortgage securities and stocks would not fall in value as well as the opposite view.

Andrew Lo, the Charles E. and Susan T. Harris Professor of Finance at the MIT Sloan School of Management, who has been on the MIT faculty since 1988, last year accepted a secondary appointment in EECS and became a primary investigator in CSAIL. Recently, Lo has used techniques borrowed from computer science to mine credit-bureau data and data about the transactions conducted by customers of financial institutions to more accurately predict the risk of default or delinquency. Lo is one of the researchers at bigdata@CSAIL, a new initiative led by professor of computer science and engineering Sam Madden.

Professor Andrew Lo and MIT colleagues, Jose-Maria Fernandez and Roger Stein, have proposed the creation of a $30bn “megafund” that would invest in early-stage biomedical research and drug development. Investing in as many as 150 experimental compounds at one time increases the chances that a few of the ventures will succeed, and generate enough profit to make up for those that fail. Prof Lo recently talked to the FT about his idea.

A proposed megafund would combine debt securities with equity investments to help pay for high-risk biomedical research.

Andrew Lo, professor, hedge fund manager, and director of the financial engineering lab at MIT’s Sloane School of Management discusses how the financial markets can play a key role in solving the greatest global challenges. Including finding a cure for cancer.

MIT finance professor and hedge fund manager Andrew W. Lo has another idea about how to further the cause — by harnessing the power of financial wizardry. Lo wants to create a “megafund” that would raise billions of dollars for early-stage research in cancer drugs.

MIT finance researchers say a diversified ‘megafund’ of securities could help the industry deliver new products to consumers.

Economist and finance professor at M.I.T.'s Sloan School of Management, challenges a core idea of financial theory: that markets are "efficient," meaning there's no point in trying to time your moves in and out of stocks, since everything you could know about them is already baked into the price.

The electronic glitch that cost Knight Capital Group $440m points to a new threat to our digital economy: technological risk. As one of the largest and most technologically advanced broker-dealers in the US, much of Knight’s trading is handled electronically. Its growth is a reflection of Moore’s law, an observation on the trend towards ever cheaper, faster, and more powerful computer hardware. However, financial services differs from the semiconductor industry in at least one important respect: human behaviour. As the great physicist Richard Feynman once said: “Imagine how much harder physics would be if electrons had feelings.” While finance undoubtedly benefits from Moore’s law, it must also contend with Murphy’s law: “Whatever can go wrong will go wrong.”

MIT Finance Professor Andrew Lo discusses the volatility of volatility. He speaks with Adam Johnson and Alix Steel on Bloomberg Television's "Street Smart."

A “proof-of-concept” study applying financial portfolio theory to U.S. biomedical research funding shows that the nation’s health might gain the largest benefit by increasing funding on heart, lung, and blood diseases, and might gain the quickest benefit by increasing spending on mental illness research.

Time recognizes MIT's Sloan School of Management professor, Andrew W. Lo as one of the World's 100 most influential people of 2012.

Translational research - the point at which general scientific knowledge starts to be applied to addressing a specific disease or condition - is the first step on the path to developing a new drug. But traditional investors in translational research (large- and medium-cap biopharmaceutical companies and life science-focused venture capital funds) are becoming increasingly risk averse in the face of escalating challenges in the drug development process. FasterCures recently hosted a Financial Innovations Lab to examine business models and financial instruments that can improve the risk/return ratio for early-stage investors. In this session you'll hear from experts who have designed and implemented new models like leveraged funds, research-based obligations and collaborative funding. If we can find a way to close the funding gap for translational research, we can get one step closer to urgently needed treatments.

The MIT/Sloan School of Management professor and Director of MIT’s Laboratory for Financial Engineering has been widely quoted on the implications of the 2008 financial crisis. One theme that Dr. Lo emphasizes repeatedly is that the risks associated with different asset classes can vary dramatically over time and for this reason, risk must be tracked, forecasted and budgeted.

MIT economist Andrew Lo set out to review a couple books about the financial crisis. Those books led to a couple more books, which led — you see where this is going — to 17 more books. Now, Lo is about to publish "Reading About The Financial Crisis: A 21 Book Review."