Radu Mihaescu

Mathematician specializing in discrete algorithms, data-structures, statistics, optimization and combinatorics. Extensive research experience in theoretical computer science and computational biology. Developed and implemented systematic short and intermediate term trading models for US equities, as Head of Quant Research in Convexus Advisors. Winner of Hertz Foundation fellowship, National Science Foundation fellowships and multiple national and international math competitions (Putnam, International Math Olympiad). Specialties: Model validation (detection and avoidance of data overfitting), risk management, latent factor models and machine learning, algorithm and data-structure design.

Notes9

• Quant employment verification: CONFIRMED.Jan 8, 2026
• Employment evidence and employer classification: the Hertz Foundation's own profile (2004 Hertz Fellow), a primary source, records a continuous quantitative-trading career: Knight Capital Group from 2009 (Head of Quantitative Trading Technology and Monetization; technical lead for the largest on-exchange market making strategy and Knight Link), then Head of Customer Market Making at Virtu Financial after Knight was acquired, leaving Virtu in 2021, then portfolio manager / Head of US Equities at a stealth quantitative trading firm, and rejoining Virtu Financial in February 2026. Knight Capital Group and Virtu Financial are both electronic market-making / electronic trading firms (quantitative finance), not merely names containing 'quant'. Identity is supported: the same Hertz profile states he won IMO gold, silver and bronze as a Romanian team member, matching the IMO-verified olympiad identity, and the LinkedIn index profile matches name, PhD and roles. Note the pre-Knight Convexus Advisors role is industry-consistent but classified from the index only.Jan 8, 2026
• LinkedIn profile (index-sourced, NOT independently confirmed by the live page) lists a Director role at Knight Capital Group (quantitative strategist, Electronic Trading Group; head of execution/monetization for Customer Market Making) and Convexus Advisors roles, with specialties in model validation, risk management, latent factor models and machine learning. Some index fields are stale — e.g. it still shows Knight as current, which the Hertz profile supersedes.Sep 2026
• Romanian IMO contestant Radu Horia Mihăescu represented Romania in 1997, 1998 and 1999; IMO-official results rank him 18th (95.9%, Gold) in 1998 and 45th (90.2%, Silver) in 1999, and the Hertz profile records a bronze medal in the third year (1997). Confirms the olympiad identity in the brief.Jul 1999
• PhD in Mathematics, UC Berkeley (2008), thesis 'Distance Methods for Phylogeny Reconstruction', jointly supervised by Lior Pachter and Satish Rao; graduate work in computational biology, phylogeny reconstruction and sequence alignment. Undergraduate: Princeton University (BA Mathematics).Dec 2008
• Hertz Foundation 2004 Fellow; academic awards include the Bernard Friedman Memorial Prize (best applied-mathematics research across all UC Berkeley departments) and a National Science Foundation graduate fellowship, plus four top-25 Putnam finishes (highest rank 7th).Jan 2004
• After Knight Capital's 2017 acquisition by Virtu Financial he moved to Virtu's Customer Market Making Group and left in 2021; his next role (stealth quant firm) and his February 2026 return to Virtu are both stated only by the Hertz profile, i.e. the intent to rejoin is dated January 2026 and is not corroborated by a Virtu primary page.Jan 8, 2026
• Held postdoctoral and quantitative-research roles before joining Knight in 2009 (UC Berkeley postdoc 2008-2009; Convexus Advisors Head of Quantitative Research 2006-2007 and Mathematical Consultant 2007-2008) — an academic-to-quant transition that predates and is distinct from the olympiad record; no causal link is asserted.Sep 2026
• Co-authored 'Combinatorics of least-squares trees' (PNAS, published 2008-09-09), an algorithm/statistics paper on least-squares phylogenetics, from his Berkeley research period — evidence of a peer-reviewed publication record.Sep 9, 2008
• Wikidata item Q102338396 ('Radu Horia Mihăescu', Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley 2008) links the olympiad/mathematics-genealogy identity to the Berkeley doctorate — an independent identifier (MathSciNet author id 781423).Jan 2008
• Early undergraduate distinction: Princeton University press clippings (April 5, 2000) and the 2001 Putnam results document place him among Princeton's mathematics competition participants, consistent with the Princeton BA in Mathematics (1999-2003).Dec 2001