# Welcome to the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science

The Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science is among the top academic units for statistical and actuarial science in the world and is home to more than 40 research active full-time faculty working in diverse and exciting areas. The Department is also home to over 900 undergraduate students and about 150 graduate students in programs including Actuarial Science, Biostatistics, Quantitative Finance, Statistics, and Statistics-Computing.

We are located on University of Waterloo main campus, which is located at the heart of Canada's Technology Triangle about 100 kilometers west of Toronto.

1. Feb. 17, 2017Prof. Ken Seng Tan Named Sun Life Fellow in International Actuarial Science

Sun Life Financial Asia (Sun Life Asia) and University of Waterloo have announced Professor Ken Seng Tan as the recipient of the Sun Life Fellowship in International Actuarial Science

2. Feb. 15, 2017Hans Rosling (1948-2017) “A voice of hope and statistical clarity"

On February 7, 2017,  Hans Rosling, Swedish statistician, academic,  and champion of global development and understanding, died after a year-long illness.

In 2006, Hans Rosling gave a TED talk that has been called “The best stats you’ve ever seen

This presentation rocketed Rosling to international fame as a great communicator of statistics and of data-driven decision making, especially in understanding global development.

3. Jan. 25, 2017Congratulations to Richard Cook, winner of the University of Waterloo Award of Excellence in Graduate Supervision for 2016-17.

Many enthusiastic letters of support for Prof. Cook’s nomination were received from former students. These students passionately described their experiences under his supervision and all speak to his deep commitment to the success and well-being of his students as well as academic excellence.

1. Mar. 23, 2017Department Seminar by Klaus Herrmann, Concordia University

Geometric Approximations to Integration Domains and Numerical Algorithms for Distribution Functions

In this talk we discuss the numerical computation of the distribution function of a random variable that is formed by applying a suitable function $g$ to a random vector $X=(X_1,\ldots,X_d)$.

A standard example in financial mathematics and actuarial science is the (weighted) sum of the components of $X$.

The recent literature has seen a new way to tackle these kind of problems by focusing on the decomposition of the associated integration set.

2. May 11, 2017David Sprott Distinguished Lecture by Professor Peter Diggle, Lancaster University

A Tale of Two Parasites: how can Gaussian processes contribute to improved public health in Africa?

In this talk, I will rst make some general comments about the role of statistical modelling in scientic research, illustrated by two examples from infectious disease epidemiology. I will then describe in detail how statistical modelling based on Gaussian spatial stochastic processes has been used to construct region-wide risk maps to inform the operation of a multi-national control programme for onchocerciasis (river blindness) in equatorial Africa.

All upcoming events

## Meet our people

### Mary Thompson

Distinguished Professor Emerita

Contact Information:
Mary Thompson

​Research interests

At present Professor Thompson works primarily in survey methodology and sampling theory. Her book Theory of Sample Surveys describes the mathematical and foundational theory in detail; it also contains a systematic approach to using estimating functions in surveys, and a thorough discussion (with examples) of the role of the sampling design when survey data are used for analytic purposes.