On May 13th, the Extraordinary Doctorate Awards were presented to recognize the best doctoral theses of the 2022–2023 academic year. We are proud to announce that two of our PhD in Business alumni, Dr. Laura Sáez and Dr. Juan José Vidal, received this prestigious award.

Dr. Laura Sáez was awarded for her thesis “The emerging landscape of Social Media Data Collection: anticipating trends and addressing future challenges”. Her research analyzes how social media platforms are used to collect personal data for digital marketing purposes. It identifies profiles that provide false information and explores their motivations. The thesis compares various algorithms for consumer segmentation, highlighting the effectiveness of XGBoost, and proposes improvements to protect privacy and increase trust in digital platforms.

Dr. Juan José Vidal received the award for his thesis “Essays on machine learning for risk analysis in finance, insurance and energy”. His research delves into risk assessment in international finance, energy economics, and transportation research. It develops new tools to analyze interconnections between companies and identify key sectors and countries driving financial risks. The study also improves the prediction of extreme returns using quantile regressions and neural networks, emphasizing the usefulness of cross-sectional information in forecasting risks such as Value-at-Risk and Expected Shortfall. The findings have important applications in risk management, financial policy, and capital regulation.

Congratulations, Laura and Juan José! The UB Business School is truly proud of your outstanding achievements.