Emanuel Derman grew up in Habonim South Africa, obtained a B.Sc. (Hons) at the University of Cape Town, and a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Columbia University.

He did research at the Universities of Pennsylvania, Oxford, Rockefeller and Colorado, and worked at AT&T Bell Laboratories where he developed computer languages for business modeling.

He then joined Goldman Sachs where he was co-author of the famous Black–Derman–Toy (BDT) model, one of the first interest-rate models, and the Derman–Kani model of the “volatility smile.” He ultimately became head of Goldman’s Quantitative Risk Strategies Group.

Emanuel was named IAFE/SunGard Financial Engineer in 2000 and elected to the Risk Hall of Fame in 2002.

His book My Life as a Quant: Reflections on Physics and Finance, was one of Business Week’s top ten books of the year for 2004.

In 2011, he published Models.Behaving.Badly which draws on Habonim SA, Apartheid, and the Great Recession to contrast financial models with scientific theories. Emanuel has written many articles on this contrast and has said:

“In physics there may one day be a Theory of Everything; in finance and the social sciences, you’re lucky if there is a usable theory of anything.”

Emanuel is currently a professor at Columbia University and Director of its program in financial engineering. Until recently he was also the Head of Risk and a partner at KKR Prisma Capital Partners, a fund of funds. He lives in New York