The Bachelier Society for Mathematical Finance held its first World
Congress in Paris last year, and coincided with the centenary of Louis
Bacheliers thesis defence. In his thesis Bachelier introduces Brownian
motion as a tool for the analysis of financial markets as well as the
exact definition of options. The thesis is viewed by many the key event
that marked the emergence of mathematical finance as a scientific
discipline. The prestigious list of plenary speakers in Paris included
two Nobel laureates, Paul Samuelson and Robert Merton, and the
mathematicians Henry McKean and S.R.S. Varadhan. Over 130 further
selected talks were given in three parallel sessions. .