Andrew W. Lo

Nonprofits routinely shoulder the burden of raising funds to fight diseases like cancer and many other life-altering or life-threatening diseases. But what drives corporate investment in potential cures? Profit or purpose? Drawing from his ongoing research, world-renowned MIT economist and financial scholar Andrew Lo, director of the MIT Laboratory for Financial Engineering, discusses the most pressing medical challenges of our time, why so many potential innovations and cures lack funding, and the ethics of drug pricing policies. Inspired by his own family struggles with gaining access to cancer treatments, he highlights the urgent need to bridge the gap between science and finance and explains how health care institutions, drug companies, vaccine makers and biotech founders can improve patient outcomes as well as their bottom lines by letting science drive investment—not vice versa—so that everybody wins.

Is it possible to build an ideal portfolio, one that perfectly balances risk and reward? In this talk, world-renowned MIT economist and financial scholar Andrew Lo, director of the MIT Laboratory for Financial Engineering, shares profound insights he learned from the world’s most prominent figures in the finance world, whom he profiled in his latest book “In Pursuit of the Perfect Portfolio.” He covers such areas as effective diversification, passive versus active investment, security selection and market timing, foreign versus domestic investments, derivative securities, nontraditional assets, irrational investing, and more. Acknowledging that the perfect portfolio is ultimately a moving target based on individual age and stage in life, market conditions, and short- and long-term goals, he explains why the fundamental principles for success remain constant in spite of changing market conditions.