Gordon Willmot - 2021/2022

Gordon Willmot - Statistics and Actuarial Science

Dr. Gordon Willmot joined the rank of the faculty in the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science in 1986. He is the world’s leading expert on risk theory and insurance mathematics. He has published 5 books and monographs; more than 100 research papers and his research work has been cited more than 8300 times.

Professor Willmot has an exceptional record of graduate student supervision. Over his 36-year long career at the University of Waterloo, he supervised 7 postdoctoral fellows and graduated 15 doctoral students and 43 master’s students. Among these students, 9 are full professors and 10 are associate or assistant professors in some of the world’s leading universities. In the words of one of his former students “I cannot think of more influential and prolific graduate supervisor in the entire actuarial academic community in the last few decades than him.”

Former students of Gordon Willmot speak passionately about his commitment to graduate supervision, “He was the best supervisor one can ask for: knowledgeable, caring (to the point he often spoils his students in a good way), and very much involved in students' research projects.” Gordon Willmot has had a profound impact both on the students he supervised and the more general strength of Waterloo’s Actuarial Science program.