News Room

We are just under two months before Election Day. As voters weigh the choices, mathematics offers a clue in how you should cast your vote in November. Every decision we make is weighed amongst several criteria. When we opt for the fries over the salad, the satisfying taste of greasy potatoes outweighs the health benefits of greens and fiber. Other days, we pick the apple over the apple pie, for the exact opposite reason. These choices are made with limited thought, often more by impulse rather than with sound reason. 

It’s common knowledge that chief executive officers (CEOs) of companies are highly paid, but new research shows a certain phenomenon can bump that yearly salary up even higher—about 10% higher. New research in the INFORMS journal Management Science finds CEO compensation climbs if they appoint a chief financial officer (CFO) after them. The increased compensation is mostly concentrated in the early years of the newly hired CFO’s tenure and in components of compensation that vary with hitting analyst-based earnings targets. The work suggests that some finance chiefs might be pressured to tweak earnings to boost the stock price, and as a result, CEO compensation.

A normal return to college this fall is anything but normal. The variety of COVID-19 impacted education plans range from fully online to fully in-person, and everything in between. Many colleges have cancelled or delayed football and other sports this fall. Colleges have welcomed students back to campus, and students are glad to be back; some have reciprocated with new infections, mostly asymptomatic. College life has been upended, with no end in sight.

Currently, dozens of experimental COVID-19 vaccines are being developed in the United States and throughout the world, including seven vaccine candidates funded by the U.S. government, according to a report by the Statesman Journal. Two of the seven vaccines are in Phase 3 clinical trials, which now begs the question: how will the vaccine be distributed, and who will be first to receive it when it’s available?

Nine of the pharmaceutical companies actively working on a coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine have pledged to make sure whatever drug they come up with is safe for people, even if it means taking longer to develop. In a joint statement, the U.S. and European firms, including AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and GlaxoSmithKline, promised to “uphold the integrity of the scientific process as they work towards potential global regulatory filings and approvals of the first Covid-19 vaccines.”