Dr Carel J. van der Merwe, PhD (Stell & UGent), FRM, CFA, PRM

Dr Carel J. van der Merwe holds a Senior Lecturer position in the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science at Stellenbosch University, where he specialises in Financial Risk Management. Carel also currently serves as the treasurer on the management committee of the South African Statistical Association. He graduated with his joint-PhD at the start of 2020 through Stellenbosch University and Ghent University in Belgium. He also forms part of a research group within the department that recently won an Elite grant within the faculty to establish a formal research group in high-dimensional data visualisation.

Before joining academia in 2016, Carel spent five years in the private sector. He started as a client service executive in 2011 and left as a senior manager in the quantitative advisory team. During his time in the private sector, he also studied towards various professional designations, including becoming a CFA Charterholder, certified FRM, and certified PRM.

His current research interest includes a combination of financial risk management and high-dimensional data visualisation, focusing on the adaptation of biplots to simplify it for broader use in inter-disciplinary research.