Say you're a physicist with a strong mathematical background, eager for intellectual stimulation and pining for some challenging problems to solve. You could seek a faculty gig and spend the next couple of decades developing a theory of everything. Or you could become a "quant" (short for "quantitative analyst") and use advanced mathematics to help move mountains - of cash - through the world's financial systems.
For anyone with a choice, Wall Street might not seem like an obvious employment destination at a time when the industry is crashing and burning. But quantitative analysis has a long history as an "alternative" career for scientists. In the past couple of decades, quants, in fact, have made themselves essential to the success--or failure--of financial-sector companies. It follows that despite the mortgage meltdown and the resulting credit calamity, exciting opportunities still exist for scientists with serious quantitative chops to work in finance--albeit, experts say, to a somewhat lesser extent in the near term. As scientific historian George Dyson says, in this time of crisis "we need more scientists in the banking system, not less."
Alaina G. Levine writes in Science Magazine.
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