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
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.
Will paper cups help you 'Roll Up to Win'?
Biostatistics professor and serial winner Michael Wallace on maximizing your odds in annual Tim Hortons contest.
Michael, an associate professor in Statistics and Actuarial Science, made headlines in 2020 when he figured out how to win the coffee chain’s newly digital Roll Up game 98 per cent of the time. That winning streak was the result of playing all his accumulated rolls in the middle of the night on the last day of the promotion. Though he only won free coffee and donuts, his high win rate got the attention of Tim Hortons. When they changed their algorithm, he kept playing, developing a new strategy in 2023 that resulted in another winning streak, and another round of media coverage.
Events
Seminar by Keith Levin
Statistics and Biostatistics seminar series
Keith Levin
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Room: M3 3127
Seminar by Jonathan Yu-Meng Li
Actuarial Science and Financial Mathematics seminar series
Jonathan Yu-Meng Li
University of Ottawa
Room: M3 3127
Seminar by Mark Rudelson
Pure Math Department Colloquium
Jointly held with the Probability seminar series
Mark Rudelson
University of Michigan
Room: MC 5501