Professor Ruodu Wang has received the inaugural Ken Seng Tan Award in Risk Sciences for his co-authored paper, "Risk Aversion and Insurance Propensity" (American Economic Review, 2025).
Established in memory of Professor Ken Seng Tan (1970–2023), the award recognizes outstanding interdisciplinary research in the broad field of risk sciences. It honours Tan's legacy as a distinguished scholar in risk management, actuarial science and quantitative finance, as well as his commitment to rigorous, integrative and practically relevant research addressing complex risk challenges.
Wang's award-winning paper, co-authored with Fabio Maccheroni, Massimo Marinacci and Qinyu Wu, was selected for its interdisciplinary innovation, methodological rigour, relevance to contemporary risk challenges and potential to advance both research and practice. The paper was completed and accepted during Dr. Qinyu Wu’s postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Waterloo. The award will be presented at the Risk Sciences Annual Conference 2026, taking place at Imperial College London on September 1–2, 2026.
For Wang, the recognition carries special meaning beyond being the inaugural recipient.
“The award has significant personal meaning to me and to our department," says Wang. "Ken Seng was a valued and loved colleague in the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, and he had tremendously supported and positively influenced the career of many young scholars including myself. I have had the privilege of following in his footsteps by serving as a professor in the department, a Sun Life Fellow and Canada Research Chair in Quantitative Risk Management, all three positions that were held by him before. It is an honour to receive an award established in his memory.”
Tan completed his PhD in the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science in 1998 and was a faculty member from 1998 to 2019. His research and leadership made lasting contributions to actuarial science, quantitative finance and risk management. The new award, from Risk Sciences, celebrates the interdisciplinary approach to risk sciences that defined his career while recognizing research that continues to advance the field.
Congratulations to Professor Wang and his co-authors on this recognition.