The Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science is a top-tier academic unit among statistical and actuarial science globally. Our community is engaged in topics such as actuarial science, biostatistics, data science, quantitative finance, statistics, & statistics-computing. Our department is home to 70 full-time faculty researching diverse and exciting areas, over 2000 undergraduate students from around the world, and approximately 200 graduate students in master, doctoral, and professional programs.
News
Waterloo PhD candidate becomes Fellow of the Society of Actuaries
Read the full version on the Faculty of Math website.
Austin Riis-Due’s actuarial journey began in high school on a whim, studying for his first exam with a friend. By the time he graduated from The University of Texas at Austin, he had passed seven Society of Actuaries (SOA) exams. Now, at just 24, Riis-Due has achieved Fellowship in the SOA—an honor typically earned much later in an actuary’s career—while pursuing a PhD in Actuarial Science & Quantitative Finance at the University of Waterloo.
Austin credits his success to Waterloo’s top-tier program and mentorship from his PhD advisors, Professors David Landriault and Bin Li, as well as Professor Yi Shen. His passion for mathematics and risk modeling has led him to global collaborations, research papers, and conferences across Europe and Africa.
Beyond academics, he cherishes the actuarial community’s tight-knit network, the ability to solve real-world financial challenges, and his deep-rooted love for Texas Longhorns football. With a bright future ahead, Riis-Due continues to push the boundaries of actuarial science while inspiring the next generation of scholars.
Congratulations to Alexandra Bühler, Graduate Research Excellence Awards recipient
Alexandra Bühler co-won a Graduate Research Excellence Award ($2500) for her paper “Multistate models as a framework for estimand specification in clinical trials of complex processes.” Alexandra graduated in 2024 with a PhD in Biostatistics.
Alexandra's co-supervisors Richard Cook and Jerry Lawless remarked that "Alexandra was an exceptional doctoral student and a joy to supervise. It is very gratifying to see her creative and important work recognized through this award. Notably, the same paper was recently recognized as one of the top 10 most cited papers in Statistics in Medicine in 2023."
Congratulations to Sean Monahan (Pure Math) and Sepehr Hajebi (Combinatorics and Optimization) who also received a Graduate Research Excellence Award for their work. Learn more by reading the full award announcement.
Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS) recognizes the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science as a Silver Tier member
The Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science is happy to be recognized by the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS) as a Silver Tier member under the CAS University Recognition Program. This program recognizes academic institutions with a demonstrated commitment to preparing property and casualty actuaries through their educational offerings. The CAS is the world’s only actuarial organization focused exclusively on property and casualty risks, serving over 10,000 members worldwide. The university will receive a set of benefits that accompany this honour, including being featured on the official CAS University Recognition Program list on the CAS website.
Events
Seminar by Max Nendel
Student seminar series
Max Nendel
Associate Professor, University of Waterloo
Room: M3 3127
Seminar by Matus Telgarsky
Probability seminar series
Matus Telgarsky
New York University
Room: M3 3127
Seminar by Weijing Tang
Statistics and Biostatistics seminar series
Weijing Tang
Carnegie Mellon University
Held virtually on Zoom Meetings.
Watch the talk in M3 3127.