In response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the global actuarial community will unite virtually this summer for the 24th International Congress on Insurance: Mathematics and Economics. This year's theme, “United as One,” symbolizes the unity and inclusion of researchers from different backgrounds all around the world. In the spirit of coming together as one, this event is jointly hosted by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the Pennsylvania State University in the United States; Ulm University in Germany; and the University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney) in Australia.
“This is an exciting and unique opportunity to collaborate with professional, enthusiastic and hard-working scholars from four prestigious universities,” said Fei Huang, organizing committee co-chair from UNSW Sydney. “I’ve been overwhelmed by the calibre of the team members and deeply impressed by the spirit they show. ‘United as One’ we work towards the same goal of making the IME Congress a great success!”
Additionally, this is the first major international insurance research conference hosted by the Department of Mathematics and the University of Illinois.
“Hosting the 24th International Congress on Insurance: Mathematics and Economics will greatly raise the awareness and the profile of our department and actuarial science program in the global community,” said Runhuan Feng, director of the actuarial science program at the University of Illinois and lead chair of the IME organizing committee. “UIUC has long had a strong educational program in actuarial science. This conference will bring focus to our commensurately successful research program and rising reputation as a center of excellence in actuarial research at the world stage.”
The International Congress on Insurance: Mathematics and Economics (IME) is the largest international meeting dedicated to exploring current trends and research in actuarial science and the insurance and finance industries. Held annually, this conference features approximately 300 presentations and more than 400 participants from around the world. The conference fosters academic and industry exchange on broad range of topics such as life-insurance, non-life insurance, data science, asset and risk management, valuation, financial modeling and emerging risks. This will be the first IME Congress to be held virtually and by cross continent universities.
“Cohosting the most influential actuarial science congress with three other leading actuarial programs is a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” said Zhongyi Yuan, organizing committee co-chair from Penn State. “I am excited and honored to work with the colleagues from UIUC, Ulm University, and UNSW Sydney, who keep impressing me with their creativity and enthusiasm for this event. The pandemic may have locked us down, but through such collaborations we bond together closer than ever.”
To ensure maximum accessibility for participants from all time zones around the globe, the conference will be five days, July 5-9, 2021 (UTC-05:00). According to Feng, presentations at the conference will be recorded and made available to the public through Actuview, an online streaming platform established by the German Actuarial Association. “We believe that the conference will provide cutting edge education and research content to researchers in developing countries and underrepresented communities,” said Feng.
All researchers in related areas are invited to submit their latest work and exchange research ideas with peers from around the world. There will be five high caliber keynote speeches representing the full span of interdisciplinary research in insurance mathematics and economics presented by:
- Patrick Brockett (University of Texas at Austin)
- Michel Denuit (Université catholique de Louvain) and Christian Robert (ENSAE Paris)
- Robert Jarrow (Cornell University)
- Olivia Mitchell (Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania)
- Ruodu Wang (University of Waterloo)
This virtual conference also commemorates the 40th year of publications of Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, which has become one of the top-ranked international academic journals in insurance research.
Additional information will be available in the coming months, including how to register, schedule updates, a call for abstracts, and more. Follow the conference website to stay up-to-date on the latest plans.
Corporate sponsorship opportunities for the Virtual 24th IME Congress are available. Please contact Tracy Parish, director of corporate and foundation relations for the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at the University of Illinois, at tparish@illinois.edu to learn more.
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has been selected as the onsite host of the 27th IME in 2024. Additionally, the university will also host the 57th Actuarial Research Conference (ARC) in 2022. Learn more →