SCOR continues to support actuarial science in 2024, presenting Actuarial Awards in seven countries and launching an annual scholarship in the UK
Each year since 1996, SCOR has rewarded the best research in the field of actuarial science with prizes in several countries.
These prizes are designed to promote the development of actuarial science, to encourage research in this field, and to contribute to the improvement of risk knowledge and management. The SCOR Actuarial Awards are recognized in the insurance and reinsurance industries as a mark of excellence. The Actuarial Awards in France are supported by the SCOR Corporate Foundation for Science, chaired by Pierre-André Chiappori.
The SCOR Actuarial Awards juries are composed of internationally recognized researchers and insurance, reinsurance and finance professionals. The winners are selected for their command of actuarial concepts, the quality of their analytical methods, and the originality of their research in terms of scientific advances and potential practical applications to the world of risk management.
In 2024, SCOR presented Actuarial Awards in seven countries: Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Singapore, Sweden, and Switzerland. This was the inaugural year for the new SCOR Actuarial Awards in Asia-Pacific, which are open to students from universities in countries where SCOR has an office. The new APAC awards are organized in conjunction with the IFoA Foundation, the charity of the UK’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.
2024 also saw the launch of a new actuarial scholarship program in the UK. Designed to invest in the career development of budding actuaries right from the start of their studies, the program will award two corporate scholarships per year to eligible students intending to study on an accredited actuarial course in the UK and/or Ireland.
If you would like to submit your research for the 2025 Actuarial Awards (including the biennial Iberian Peninsula awards), or to apply for the UK scholarship, the entry details will be online in January at www.scor.com/en/actuarial-awards.
Thierry Léger, Chief Executive Officer of SCOR, comments: “In today’s rapidly evolving risk landscape, the ongoing development of risk knowledge and management is crucial to the (re)insurance industry. I would like to thank all our winners in 2024 for their contribution to that development through their valuable and insightful work. Our Actuarial Awards have been supporting actuarial science for the past 28 years. By expanding their reach to Asia-Pacific and creating a scholarship program for actuarial undergraduates in the UK, we are fortifying SCOR’s firm commitment to pushing back the frontiers of insurability and contributing to the welfare, resilience, and sustainable development of society.”
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SCOR Actuarial Award Winners in 2024
On 3 October in Zurich, Fabian Uffer, SCOR’s Chief Risk Officer, presented the Actuarial Award for Switzerland at an actuarial conference held in conjunction with the sustainability working group of the Swiss Association of Actuaries (SAV). The prize went to Dr. Simona Meiler of ETH Zurich, for her doctoral thesis “Unraveling unknowns in tropical cyclone risk assessment.”
On 11 October in Stockholm, Svein Børre Solvang, CEO of SCOR Sweden Re, Christian Cypris, Head of Pricing & Data, Central Europe & Nordics at SCOR Life & Health, and Rasmus Thunberg, representing the Swedish Actuarial Association, presented the Actuarial Award for Sweden during the annual SCOR Sweden Re Nordic Life Insurance Conference. The 2024 prize was awarded to Vilma Guevara Härkönen of Stockholm University, for her Master's thesis “On Claims Reserving with Machine Learning Techniques.”
On 18 November in Mannheim, Wolfgang Schanz, Head of Central Pricing at SCOR in Cologne, and Dr. Stefan Schelling from Ulm University, presented the Actuarial Awards for Germany. The winners were Robin Sell of the University of Cologne (first prize), for his Master's thesis "Spectral Decomposition in Fixed Income: Leveraging Principal Components for Portfolio Analysis and Macroeconomic Interpretation", Dr. Yusha Chen of Ulm University (second prize), for her doctoral dissertation "Life Insurance Companies: Product Design, Marketing, and Investment", and Anna Ströse of TH Rosenheim, for her Bachelor's thesis "Kalenderjahresrisiko im Chain-Ladder-Modell: Herleitung der Merz-Wüthrich-Formel über das Law of Propagation of Uncertainty" (Calendar year risk in the chain ladder model: Derivation of the Merz-Wüthrich formula using the Law of Propagation of Uncertainty).
On 27 November in Sydney and 28 November in Singapore, Paula Bourke, SCOR Head of Life & Health for Australia and New Zealand, and Mukul Kishore, SCOR Head of P&C for APAC, respectively presented the new Actuarial Awards for the Asia-Pacific region. The first prize went to Michelle Kundai Vhudzijena, PhD, Senior Research Associate at UNSW in Sydney, for her doctoral thesis “Modelling mortality heterogeneity using health trajectories and multimorbidity”. The second prize was awarded to Dr. Yanbin Xu of Nanyang Technological University Singapore, for his doctoral thesis “Climate change and sustainability: An actuarial risk management perspective.”
On 11 December in Milan, Manuela Colombo, P&C Head of South Europe and Legal Representative for SCOR Italy, and president of the jury Professor Nino Savelli of Milan’s Università Cattolica, presented the 2024 Actuarial Awards for Italy. The awards went to Beatrice Parravicini of Milan’s Università Cattolica, for her Master’s thesis “Parametric insurance coverages against natural catastrophe risks: a new risk transfer solution in a world of climate extremes”, and Lorenzo Zubin of the University of Trieste, for his Master’s thesis “I modelli regime switching per la valutazione del rischio di estinzione anticipata di massa” (Regime-switching models for the assessment of mass lapse risk).
On 11 December in Paris, Philippe Trainar, Director of the SCOR Foundation, and president of the jury Professor Stéphane Loisel of CNAM, presented the 2024 Actuarial Awards for France following the annual actuarial conference organized in conjunction with the French Institute of Actuaries, in the presence of its President, Laurence Bauduin. Sébastien Farkas, of Sorbonne University, received the Prix des Jeunes Docteurs for his doctoral dissertation “Mathématiques appliquées à l’assurance des risques numériques” (Mathematics applied to the insurance of digital risks). The Prix des Jeunes Actuaires was awarded to Nicxan Hensman Stalin of Université Paris Dauphine-PSL, for his thesis “Modélisation d’une carte d’exposition au risque ouragan aux États-Unis” (Modeling a hurricane exposure map in the USA).
The winning papers can be accessed from the Actuarial Awards page on SCOR’s website.
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