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Learn about the program from Angel Yang, a fourth year student majoring in Actuarial Science at the University of Waterloo. In her interview with AdvisorSmith, Angel talks about why she chose to study at the University of Waterloo, her experience on campus, why a co-op program made sense to her, and much more. View the full interview online to see what she has to say.  

If you are interested in pursuing Actuarial Science, Waterloo should be at the top of your list. The Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science (SAS) is considered a top tier academic unit in the field of Actuarial Science.  Our department has one of the world’s largest programs at both the undergraduate and the graduate levels. SAS offers professional masters programs as well as research-oriented masters and doctoral programs in actuarial science and finance. It is home to the bachelor of mathematics in actuarial science program which covers a wide range of courses, including full coverage of the material of the SOA/CAS associateship requirements and some coverage of the SOA/CAS fellowship requirements. With a sizeable actuarial faculty, the range of courses offered is broad and extends well beyond the SOA/CAS syllabi. Students may choose to gain foundational knowledge in life insurance, property and casualty insurance, pensions, risk theory, quantitative finance, and corporate finance. Students who are particularly interested in financial or predictive analytics topics may elect to add either option to their actuarial science honours plan. 

On Wednesday, September 18, 2019, the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science (SAS) celebrated the 50^th anniversary of Professor Mary Thompson as a faculty member in the department. Many current faculty and staff and a number of retired professors gathered in the SAS Lounge and celebrated Mary’s milestone with cake, coffee and fruits. The Vice-President, Research & International, of University of Waterloo, Professor Charmaine Dean, who was a PhD graduate from the department, sent a beautiful bouquet to congratulate Mary on this special occasion. A couple retired faculty members turned the clock back and told stories about Mary during the early days of the department. Mary thanked the department for being her academic home for the past 50 years, and told the younger generation of faculty members that SAS is a “can-do” place to fulfill their full potential and aspiration.  

Mary joined the department in 1969 as one of the first group of statistics faculty members, when the department was still in its infancy (established in 1967). Over the past half a century, Mary has become a fixture of the department, a highly accomplished scholar, and a great inspiration and role model for many students and young faculty members. She has provided dedicated services to the statistical community at all levels, including chair of the department, acting dean of the faculty, first scientific director of the Canadian Statistical Sciences Institute, and president of the Statistical Society of Canada.

The Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science would like to congratulate Phelim Boyle, along with two other Faculty of Mathematics researchers, on being named a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (RSC). They are among the seven University of Waterloo researchers to receive this honour and among 93 new fellows elected by their peers for outstanding scholarly, scientific, and artistic achievement across Canada.

Phelim is a professor emeritus at Waterloo and a professor of business and economics and Wilfrid Laurier University. He is an actuary whose seminal research work in finance and insurance has won international recognition. He uses mathematical models to solve problems at the interface of these fields. Boyle has made pioneering contributions to quantitative finance and his ideas have transformed how actuaries handle financial risk. His research has influenced financial practice by providing sophisticated tools for financial institutions to better manage their risks.

Read the full article on Math News.

Four graduate students were awarded a departmental research presentation award by the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, but that's not all they have in common. They all came to Waterloo because they knew of the excellence of the Statistics programs, research, and professors. Their backgrounds vary, as do their research areas, but they have all had a great experience.

Speeding is the riskiest kind of aggressive driving, according to a unique analysis of data from on-board devices in vehicles.

Researchers at the University of Waterloo examined data from 28 million trips for possible links between four bad driving behaviours – speeding, hard braking, hard acceleration and hard cornering – and the likelihood of crashes.

Read the full article on the Math News site.

The Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science would like to highlight the recent achievements of two of its department members, Mario Ghossoub and Mirabelle Huynh, for earning their designation of Fellow of the Society of Actuaries.

Congratulations to the two of them for this extraordinary achievement!

The University of Waterloo, which is among the top universities in the world for actuarial science and number one in co-operative learning, has combined these two things to help build a stronger insurance and pension industry in Indonesia.

Aukosh Jagannath holds a PhD in Mathematics from the Courant Institute at New York University from 2016. Since then he has been an NSF mathematical sciences postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto and Harvard University as well as a Benjamin Pierce Fellow at Harvard University. His research interests are in probability and analysis and their applications to statistical physics, combinatorial optimization, the mathematics of data science, and high-dimensional statistics. Aukosh will help develop a stronger theoretical foundation for data science and expand our links with other departments and faculties at Waterloo.

The Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science is extremely proud to announce that Diana Skryzdlo has been granted the Distinction in Teaching award. Diana's, enthusiasm in the classroom and dedication to her students earned her a top spot for this award.  

The Faculty of Mathematics Award for Distinction in Teaching is granted to teachers in the Faculty of Mathematics who have consistently demonstrated outstanding pedagogical skills and a deep commitment to our students’ education. 

Fangda Liu holds a PhD in Actuarial Science from the University of Waterloo from 2015. She was then an assistant professor at the Central University of Finance and Economics for 3 years, and joins us from an assistant professor position in the College of Business at Georgia State University. Her research interests include reinsurance/insurance, risk measures, risk sharing and market equilibria. Her work provides a good balance of theory and applications and she will strengthen the actuarial science group within our department.