Rina Ashkenazi

Ph.D., Academic Director MCFAM

Professor Ashkenazi is an Associate Professor in the School of Mathematics at the University of Minnesota and the Academic Director of MCFAM.   She is responsible for MCFAM academic standards, admissions, MCFAM research teams, curriculum development and academic advising.   Professor Ashkenazi has a Ph.D. and a M.Sc. in Theoretical Physics from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel and a B.Sc. in Mathematics and Physics from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel.   Prior to joining the University of Minnesota, Rina spent five years in the Mathematics Department at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.   Rina's research interests focus mainly on modeling complex systems in a variety of disciplines, such as physics, biology, finance and risk management, and she has taught a variety of courses related to Financial and Actuarial Mathematics, including Introduction to Probability, Stochastic Processes, Actuarial Mathematics, and Theory of Interest.   In addition, Professor Ashkenazi has five years of experience in Industry as an Algorithms Engineer in two major high tech companies, Orbotech Limited in Yavneh, Israel and Applied Materials in Rehovot, Israel.