Nicole El Karoui (née Schvartz) is a French mathematician and pioneer in the development of mathematical finance, born 29 May 1944 in Paris.

She is considered one of the pioneers on the French school of mathematical finance and trained many engineers and scientists in this field.

She is Professor Emeritus of Applied Mathematics at Sorbonne University, and held professorship positions at the École Polytechnique and Université du Maine.

Her research has contributed to the application of probability and stochastic differential equations to modeling and risk management in financial markets.

The reputation of Professor El Karoui's classes is such that Wall Street Journal opines that there may be too many of her students in important positions handling financial derivatives.

[1] In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Rama Cont, Professor of Mathematical Finance at the University of Oxford, described a degree with Ms. El Karoui's name on it as "the magic word that opened doors for young people.

"[2] El Karoui was the co-director, with Marc Yor and Gilles Pagès, of the Masters program in Probability & Finance,[3] jointly operated by École Polytechnique and the Pierre and Marie Curie University (Paris VI), which she co-founded with Hélyette Geman.

She is particularly known for her work on the robustness of the Black-Scholes hedging strategy, superhedging of contingent claims and the change of numéraire method for option pricing.