The unveiling ceremony for the Robert C. Merton Nobel Laureate Workstation, dedicated to the Nobel Prize in Economics winning laureate, was held at Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications in Southwest China's Chongqing on Friday.

Robert C. Merton, the 1997 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences, is a Member of the US National Academy of Sciences and a professor at MIT. He is renowned as a foundational figure in modern financial theory and often hailed as the "Father of Options".

At the event, Merton highlighted the anticipation of leveraging science and technology to address real-world problems. "I'm looking forward to being a part of that and helping to see that happen here in western China, and beyond," he said.

The workstation is established in collaboration with CQUPT, Merton, and Chongqing Ant Consumer Finance Co.

"We will use this workstation as an opportunity to further integrate Professor Merton's cutting-edge financial theories with our university's strengths in disciplines like artificial intelligence," Li Lin, Party secretary of CQUPT, said at the event.

Li added that this initiative will help build a hub for digital finance talent and an academic dialogue platform, strengthen international exchanges and cooperation, deepen industry-education integration, and contribute wisdom and strength to the development of the financial center in China's western region.

CQUPT, renowned as the "birthplace of digital communication in China", is a high-level university distinguished by its focus on information communication in China. For over 70 years, the university has been deeply involved in the field of information and communication. Its pioneering "granular computing" theory has made a significant global impact.

Following the unveiling, an appointment ceremony was held in which Merton was named an Honorary Professor at CQUPT, and Azita Sharif, a member of Merton's team and a bioethics researcher at Harvard Medical School, was appointed as a Visiting Professor.

Coinciding with the ceremony, the Symposium on AI-Empowered Western Financial Center Construction featured keynote speeches from Merton, who spoke on "From Finance Theory to Financial Innovation Practice", CQUPT Professor Xia Shuyin, who discussed "Granular Ball Computing Theory and Its Driven Merton Economic Theoretical Model", and Liu Yi, CIO of Chongqing Ant Consumer Finance Co, who addressed "Exploration and Practice of AI-Enabled Financial Consumer Protection".