Greetings from the New E&R Chair

By Russell Hendel

Expanding Horizons, November 2022

If challenge is opportunity, then this is the best of times to be an actuary. I am therefore really excited to chair the Education and Research (E&R) council this year and attempt to capture these opportunities.

Besides new initiatives, I will also build on the work of my predecessors, whom I would now like to thank with an eye to the future.

First, I would like to thank Liang (Jason) Hong, the current chair, for his leadership. Among other initiatives, the Actuarial Research Conference (ARC) was held this year face-to-face for the first time in three years. With the assistance of Zhiyu (Frank) Quan and his team at the University of Illinois, this year’s ARC was a huge success—from the opening welcome; to the keynote and invited addresses, including those on Insurance and Systemic Risk (Qihe Tange) and Beyond Excel (Brian Fennin); to the tours of Japan House; to the banquet with a wonderful performance by Caroline McKinzie. I look forward to helping plan ARC 2023 at Drake University (July 31 through August 2).

Jason also promoted and re-emphasized that the SOA Actuarial Science Early Career Award was established as an international vehicle for recognizing outstanding actuarial research whether inside or outside the United States. In fact, the 2022 award was given to Dr. Tim Boonen, an associate professor of actuarial science and mathematical finance in the Amsterdam School of Economics at the University of Amsterdam. I will continue this tradition of reviewing the Early Career Award for further impacts.

Although Hal Pederson, current co-vice chair with me, often sits quietly in the background, he has used his vast experience to make contributions to almost all aspects of the council, including representation of the E&R council at SOA meetings, promoting E&R at conferences and giving advice for producing webcasts. I look forward to further inspirations from him this year.

I thank Jeffrey Zheng for accurate reporting of the council’s green status. I am already working with our health specialists, Chuck Fuhrer and Tim Luedtke, for a possible joint webinar with the Health council.

I thank Tianyang Wang and Stefanos Orfanos for an outstanding job with Expanding Horizons, keeping the flow of material constant and ensuring that there is a diverse and balanced collection of articles. I look forward to another great year of publications with them.

I also thank Stefanos Orfanos for being the section secretary. Although I haven’t spoken to him yet, both Stefanos and I have published our successful actuarial education attempts in Expanding Horizons. I look forward to resurrecting, with his help, an education webinar this year (the E in E&R).

This past year saw a transition from Jane Lesch, earning a well-deserved retirement, to Carla Eisenberg as SOA engagement specialist. We have already seen Carla’s prompt and focused abilities, and I look forward to working with her next year.

Last, but never least, I look forward to continuing my work with SOA senior education staff fellow, Stuart Klugman, for his thorough coverage of all SOA activities (although I hope there are no more syllabus changes this year!).

Statements of fact and opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors and are not necessarily those of the Society of Actuaries, the editors, or the respective authors’ employers.

Russell Jay Hendel, PhD, ASA, is the incoming chair of the Education and Research Section council. He is adjunct faculty III at Towson University, where he assists with the Actuarial Science and Research Methods program. Russell can be reached at RHendel@towson.edu.