WKU News

Kyla Scanlon, Finance, Economics, and Business Data Analytics triple major from Louisville, was recognized as third out of 550 student presentations at the Butler University Undergraduate Research Conference for her research titled, “Effects of Terrorism on the Stock Market: Evidence from High Frequency Data.”

The Butler University Undergraduate Research Conference celebrated its 30th annual conference on April 13. Butler prides its conference on being a country-wide opportunity for students to present their research and creativity with either an oral or poster presentation. 

“When I got the email, I was absolutely shocked. This was my first ever research paper, and winning third was well beyond anything I could have imagined,” Scanlon said.

Scanlon has been researching vigorously since September of 2017. She thinks of herself as being very involved in the stock market and trading which eventually led her to her topic on how that market is affected by terrorism. Scanlon’s research is funded by BB&T, who reached out to her after she had won Outstanding Junior in Economics award from the Gordon Ford College of Business in 2017 and not long before she dived into her research.

Dr. Alex Lebedinsky, Scanlon’s faculty adviser and Associate Professor of Economics has worked with her for over a year, and described her as very talented and hardworking— two qualities that he believes make her such a successful student and researcher.

“Kyla’s unbelievable work ethic, her intellectual curiosity, and her willingness to push herself to learn more are probably the most important factors,” Lebedensky said.