Members of the Sage Hill community packed the Black Box Theater on Oct. 2 alongside denizens of the larger Newport Beach area to listen to the first of this year’s Science Lecture Series, “The Physics of Wall Street”.

The talk, in collaboration with the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce, featured Vineer Bhansali, PhD, managing director at the investment firm PIMCO; James Weatherall, PhD, author of The Physics of Wall Street: A Brief History of Predicting the Unpredictable and Assistant Professor of Logic and Philosophy at UCI; and Edward Thorp, PhD, professor of mathematics, author of Beat the Dealer and the grandfather of juniors Claire, Edward and Christopher Goul.

Thorp moderated, asking initial questions about how Bhansali’s background in physics and Weatherall’s philosophical training enabled their successes as financial analysts.

“You have to like to get inside the machine and see how it works,” Bhansali commented. “Don’t do it to make money; the money will come if you’re good.  Do it because you want to figure it out.”

The three men also took questions from the audience which ranged from queries about the future of Wall Street “quants,” or quantitative analysts, to what the three men did with their own money. Both Bhansali and Weatherall spoke directly to the students in the audience.

“We’re victims of our own success,” said Weatherall.  “The science has become so complicated that it’s difficult to communicate.”

Both lecturers gave similar advice to the high school scientists. “Learn the basic math, physics and economics as well as you can,” said Weatherall, with Bhansali adding, “go into it thinking, ‘how can I have fun and learn on the job’?”

“Science will thrive just as long as we have bright people coming in,” said Weatherall wryly.  “And just as long as we have money coming in.”