Dr. Robert Webb, finance professor at the University of Virginia, has studied market behavior surrounding events that trigger sudden price moves — policy statements, economic reports, interventions, natural disasters, and geopolitical situations such as wars and terrorism — for nearly 30 years. Unlike many academics, though, Webb isn’t stuck in the ivory tower.

Webb first began following the markets after visiting Wall Street and the Chicago futures exchanges upon graduating from the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire in 1974. He then enrolled in the University of Chicago’s graduate business program and studied under professors Fischer Black and Myron Scholes, developers of the Black-Scholes options-pricing model.