News Releases

BMO Capital Markets Creates Advanced Ph.D Level Research Scholarship

TORONTO, May 13, 2009 – Vladimir Surkov, a Ph.D. student at the University of Toronto, is the inaugural recipient of the annual BMO Capital Markets Advanced Research Scholarship.

Mr. Surkov will receive a $20,000 honorarium for his research work on Fast Fourier Transform-based Numerical Methods for Option. Applications of this research will be used for derivatives valuation. Mr. Surkov's work has also been published in the Journal of Computational Finance. Mr. Surkov plans to pursue post-doctoral studies at the University of Western Ontario and the Field Institute in Toronto.

“This scholarship award emphasizes BMO's commitment to education and the importance of fostering advanced research at Canadian universities. Vladimir's work was one of several great proposals that we received,” said Pat Cronin, Executive Managing Director and Head of Financial Products and Debt Products, BMO Capital Markets.

“I am very honoured to be chosen to receive this award on my Ph.D. research. I am excited by the opportunity to collaborate with BMO Capital Markets to further my research in the area of quantitative finance,” added Mr. Surkov.

The scholarship program, in its first year, was launched to advance research in capital markets. Academics and Ph.D.-level candidates in mathematics, finance or similar areas were invited to submit research proposals on specific topics, including advanced pricing theory; advanced risk management techniques; advanced trading strategies relating to derivative markets; and market microstructure and trade execution. The award committee was made up of five BMO Capital Markets quantitative analysts, who all hold Ph.D. degrees

About BMO Capital Markets
BMO Capital Markets is a leading full-service North American financial services provider, with over 2,400 employees operating in 14 North American offices and 26 worldwide, offering corporate, institutional and government clients access to a complete range of investment and corporate banking products and services. BMO Capital Markets is a member of BMO Financial Group (NYSE, TSX: BMO),
one of the largest diversified financial services providers in North America with
US$361 billion total assets and 37,000 employees as at January 31, 2009.

Pat Cronin, Executive Managing Director and Head of Financial Products and Debt Products, BMO Capital Markets (left) and Dmitri Rubisov, Director, Financial Products, BMO Capital Markets (right), present The BMO Capital Markets Advanced Research Scolarship to University of Toronto Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science, Vladimir Surkov(centre).

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