Pooya Vahidi Ferdowsi

Mathematician and quantitative researcher. PhD in Mathematics from Caltech (2020, advisor Omer Tamuz); MASt Pure Mathematics, University of Cambridge, Trinity College (2013-2014); B.Sc. Mathematics, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (2009-2013). International Olympiad medals in both informatics (IOI 2009, Iran) and mathematics (IMO 2009, Islamic Republic of Iran). Co-authored mathematics papers in Annals of Mathematics and other venues on random walks, amenable groups and the Choquet-Deny property. Industry roles: Member of Research Staff at The Voleon Group (quantitative ML hedge fund, 2020-2024) and Quantitative Researcher at Jump Trading (2017 summer), plus a Google software engineering internship (2016).

Notes1

• Quant employment verification: CONFIRMED. Index-backed LinkedIn enrichment (LinkedIn headline still names Voleon) shows a 2020-06 to 2024-02 Member of Research Staff stint at The Voleon Group (quant ML hedge fund) and a 2017 summer Quantitative Researcher role at Jump Trading (proprietary/HFT). Identity supported by shared math/Caltech/Olympiad backbone. Both are actual paid roles at confirmed quant firms; student programmes do not apply.Feb 2024
• Employer classification: The Voleon Group is a Berkeley-based quantitative investment management firm applying machine learning/AI to trading, founded 2007 by two ML scientists (Wikipedia). 'Member of Research Staff' there is a genuine quantitative-hedge-fund research role.2024
• Employer classification: Jump Trading LLC is a proprietary trading firm focused on algorithmic/high-frequency trading (Wikipedia). The 'Quantitative Researcher' title (summer 2017, Greater Chicago Area) sits at a genuine quant trading firm.2017
• Education timeline confirmed across three independent sources: B.Sc. Mathematics, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (2009-2013); MASt Pure Mathematics, University of Cambridge, Trinity College (studentship, 2013-2014); PhD Mathematics, Caltech (2014-2020), advisor Omer Tamuz.Jun 2020
• Career axis: pure-mathematics training (Ferdowsi -> Cambridge MASt -> Caltech PhD) feeding into industrial quantitative research at Voleon and Jump; no public evidence of quant finance work before the 2017 Jump internship.Jun 2017
• PhD dissertation 'Strongly Amenable Groups, Choquet-Deny Groups, and the Infinite Conjugacy Class Property' (Caltech, 2020), advisor Omer Tamuz.Jun 2020
• Caltech news (2020-03-26) profiles Vahidi Ferdowsi as one of Omer Tamuz's graduate students who, with Joshua Frisch and Yair Hartman, solved a long-standing random-walk problem; institutional (Caltech) source.Mar 26, 2020
• Co-authored 'Choquet-Deny groups and the infinite conjugacy class property' (Frisch, Hartman, Tamuz, Vahidi Ferdowsi), Annals of Mathematics vol. 190 no. 1 (2019) - the paper behind the Caltech random-walk result.Jul 2019
• Cambridge MASt studentship recorded in Trinity College Annual Record 2012-13: 'Pooya Vahidi Ferdowsi (Iran), Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Studentship in Mathematics for the MASt in Pure Mathematics' - the bridge between his Iranian B.Sc. and Caltech PhD.2013
• Also co-authored 'Quasi-Regular Sequences' (Frisch, Hann-Caruthers, Vahidi Ferdowsi) and non-virtually-nilpotent-groups work; recurring co-authors are Joshua Frisch, Yair Hartman, Omer Tamuz and Wade Hann-Caruthers.Sep 2019
• Software Engineering Internship at Google (2016, US) doing input-dependent ensemble learning with TensorFlow, a real internship but not quantitative finance.2016
• IOI 2009 contestant for Iran, silver medal (score 518); identity matches the LinkedIn/Caltech person via shared name, Iranian origin and Ferdowsi University of Mashhad.Aug 2009