__________________Honors & Awards__________________

• National Science Foundation CAREER Award ($672,369): Relationships in Finance, 2009-2014.

• National Science Foundation Sci-SIP Award ($385,502): “Assessing the Impact of Non-Practicing Entities on U.S. Innovation, 2015-2018.

• 3 x Winner of Smith Breeden Prize for the Best Paper Published in the Journal of Finance in Asset Pricing (Distinguished Paper), (2007, 2008, 2010).

• Winner of Fama-DFA Prize for the Best Paper Published in the Journal of Financial Economics in Asset Pricing (Distinguished Paper), 2013.

• Invited to testify to the United States Congress on the impacts of Government Spending, 2010.

• Invited to consult the governments of China and Turkey on pensions and innovation.

• Winner of Western Finance Association Best Paper Prize in Quantitative Investments, 2007.

• 2 x Winner of European Finance Association Best Paper Prize (2006, 2007).

• 2 x Winner of First Prize, Crowell Memorial Award for Best Paper in Quantitative Investments, PanAgora Asset Management, (2011, 2014).

• 2 x Winner of First Prize, Chicago Quantitative Alliance Academic Paper Competition (2006, 2010).

• 3 x Winner of Institute for Quantitative Investment Research (INQUIRE) Grant (2009, 2010, 2013).

• Winner of Best Paper Prize of the Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP) Forum, 2010.

• Winner of Columbia Millstein Center & Investor Responsibility Research Center Grant, 2013.

• Winner of First Prize, Istanbul Stock Exchange 25th Anniversary Best Paper Competition, 2010.

• Winner of Paul Woolley Centre Academic Grant, 2010.

• Winner of First Prize, the Inaugural Hakan Orbay Research Award, 2015.

• Winner of Emerald Citation of Excellence, 2009.

• Winner of BSI Gamma Foundation Grant, Firm Characteristics and Investment Management, 2006.

• Winner of Whitebox Grant for Research in the Behavioral Sciences, 2006.

• Winner of Simon Kuznets Fellowship – Outstanding Undergraduate in Economics, 2000.

• 2001 United States Powerlifting Federation Collegiate National Champion (220 lbs.)

• Set the All-Time World Record in the Squat in the 181 lb. drug-tested division with a squat of 630 lbs (December 2014)