Tucker Balch

Tucker Balch is a Professor in the Practice and Research of Finance at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School.  His work lies at the intersection of AI and finance. He earned his Bachelor's degree and Ph.D. in Computer Science at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Balch has published over 120 peer-reviewed research papers and filed 40 patents. He has held research and teaching positions at Carnegie Mellon University and the Georgia Institute of Technology where he was a tenured full professor.

In the financial industry, Balch co-founded Lucena Research, a data-driven investment technology company utilizing machine learning, big data, and quantitative analysis to offer actionable insights for investment professionals. In 2019 he joined J.P. Morgan as a managing director to help create and grow the AI Research team. While there, he led teams exploring machine learning, cryptography, multi-agent system simulations, high-frequency electronic markets, and synthetic data for finance. He contributed to the firm's recognition as the #1 bank worldwide in AI.

Balch is also an online education pioneer, developing and teaching massive online open courses (MOOCs) including "Computational Investing" and "Machine Learning for Trading," which have reached more than 170,000 students worldwide.

Before his research career, Balch served as an F-15 pilot in the U.S. Air Force.

Professor Balch's honors include an NSF CAREER Award, a Best Paper Award at the International Conference on AI in Finance, and recognition as a Prolific Inventor at J.P. Morgan. He was a Distinguished Graduate of USAF pilot training and won a Top Gun Award at his F-15 squadron.