Nassim Nicholas Taleb is a Lebanese-American professor, essayist, and risk analyst. He is known for his work on problems of randomness, probability, complexity, and uncertainty. Taleb has held positions as a professor at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University and has worked as a risk analyst and option trader. He is the author of several books, including the bestselling 'The Black Swan' and 'Antifragile'. Taleb's research and writing focus on the impact of highly improbable and unpredictable events, which he calls 'black swans', and how to build systems that can withstand and even benefit from such events.