Robert C. Merton is the School of Management Distinguished Professor of Finance at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the John and Natty McArthur University Professor Emeritus at Harvard University. Merton received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1997 for a new method to determine the value of derivatives. After receiving a PhD in economics from MIT in 1970, Merton joined the MIT Sloan School finance faculty until 1988, at which time he was J.C. Penney Professor of Management. Merton’s research focuses on finance theory, including life-cycle and retirement finance, optimal portfolio selection, capital asset pricing, pricing of derivative securities, credit risk, loan guarantees, financial innovation, the dynamics of institutional change, and improving the methods of measuring and managing macro-financial systemic risk. He received a BS in engineering mathematics from Columbia University, an MS in applied mathematics from the California Institute of Technology and a PhD in economics from MIT.