Nassim Nicholas Taleb is a mathematical trader, a researcher, and an essayist principally interested in the problems of uncertainty and knowledge. His interests lie at the juncture of philosophy, mathematics, finance, and the social sciences but he has stayed extremely close to the ground thanks to an uninterrupted two-decade career as a trader specializing in the dynamics of unexpected rare events ("black swans"). He has an MBA from the Wharton School and a PhD from the University Paris-Dauphine. He teaches at the Courant Institute of New York University