Saeed Ilchi Ghazan

Iranian-born computer scientist (IOI 2012 gold medalist) with a PhD in Computer Science from ETH Zurich (distributed algorithms). Index record lists a ~3-year quantitative-analyst tenure at Second Foundation, a European power-market maker in Zug, and a subsequent Research Engineer role at Ansatz Capital, a New York proprietary quant trading firm, in London from 2026.

Notes8

• Quant employment verification: UNRESOLVED. The only evidence for the quantitative-finance roles is the LinkedIn-index record (enrich/people_search), which lists Quantitative Analyst at Second Foundation (Zug, CH) Dec 2023-Jan 2026, Senior Quantitative Analyst at Second Foundation Feb-Jun 2026, and Research Engineer at Ansatz Capital (London) from Jul 2026. No independent primary source (personal CV, firm page, press) confirms any of these roles, so the roles are index-only. Employer classification: Ansatz Capital is a proprietary quantitative trading firm (NY, expanding to London, per its own site and Hedgeweek), and Second Foundation (second-foundation.eu) is a European power-market market maker/short-term trading firm - both do operate in quantitative trading. Identity is supported across IOI 2012 stats, dblp/ETH publications and ETH talk pages, and the LinkedIn education record (Sharif + ETH Zurich), but no source independently ties that verified identity to a signed role. Therefore the roles both exist as lead evidence and remain unconfirmed: UNRESOLVED rather than CONFIRMED.
• LinkedIn-index record lists a Research Engineer role at Ansatz Capital in London starting 2026-07 (current per index); this is index-derived and not confirmed by any primary source.Jul 2026
• Ansatz Capital is a proprietary quantitative trading firm based in New York (its site describes it as 'a quantitative trading firm based in New York', 'a small team of scientists and engineers'), and Hedgeweek reported it expanding into London - so the employer classified by the lead is a genuine quant trading firm.
• Second Foundation (second-foundation.eu) is a European power-market market maker: its own site states 'As one of the most significant market makers in the European spot market, we provide liquidity', with a fully automated algorithm - a genuine market-making/quant trading operation, matching the Switzerland/Zug location on the index record.
• LinkedIn-index record lists the progression Quantitative Analyst (Dec 2023-Jan 2026) then Senior Quantitative Analyst (Feb-Jun 2026) at Second Foundation, Zug, Switzerland - a ~3-year tenure at one firm before moving to Ansatz Capital.Dec 2023
• Won a gold medal for Iran at IOI 2012 (rank 19, 395 points); the IOI statistics page lists him as 'Saeed Ilchi Ghazan'.Sep 30, 2012
• Completed a PhD in Computer Science at ETH Zurich (2019-2023) in the Theory of Combinatorial Algorithms group, working on deterministic distributed algorithms (index record + dblp/ETH corroboration).
• PhD research produced peer-reviewed work on distributed graph algorithms (e.g. 'Near-Optimal Distributed Dominating Set in Bounded Arboricity Graphs', arXiv 2206.05174, and a DBLP-listed dissertation on deterministic distributed algorithms), placing him in Mohsen Ghaffari's ETH distributed-algorithms line.Jun 2022
• Earned a BSc in Software Engineering at Sharif University of Technology (2012-2016), then an MSc in Artificial Intelligence there (2016-2018) - the timeline matches the IOI 2012 high-school contestant (index record).
• cphof.org profile 'Profile of Saeed Ilchi Ghazaan' ties the codeforces handle mR.ilchi to the IOI (Saeed Ilchi Ghazan) 2012 record, corroborating that the competitive-programming identity and the IOI identity are the same person.
• Gave repeated talks at the ETH Theory of Combinatorial Algorithms Mittagsseminar (e.g. Apr 2020 'Derandomized balanced allocation', Nov 2021 'Perfect Matching in the Plane', May 2023 'Deterministic Distributed Hitting Set'), spanning his whole PhD.
• Uses the competitive-programming handle 'mR.ilchi' on Codeforces (linked from his cphof.org profile alongside the IOI 2012 record), the same handle attached to 'Saeed Ilchi Ghazan' in public ACM-profile datasets.