Austin Gerig is the Chief Data Officer at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In this role, he is responsible for developing the agency’s data strategy, enabling data analytics to support enforcement, examinations, and policymaking, and ensuring effective data security.

Austin holds a Ph.D. in Physics and an M.S. in Finance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior to joining the SEC, Austin was a Senior Research Fellow in the Said Business School, University of Oxford.

Austin’s research work has covered various important topics in market microstructure, including the price impact of large, algorithmically traded orders, the structure of volatility fluctuations in security prices, and the effects of high-frequency trading in financial markets. His research has been highlighted in numerous media outlets including Bloomberg, Time, The Wire, MIT Technology Review, and NPR.