By Sam Broverman
The University of Toronto is proud to have been chosen to be the host for the 50th annual Actuarial Research Conference (ARC). The conference will take place from Wednesday, August 5 through Saturday, August 8 at historic Victoria College on the University of Toronto campus.
University of Toronto (U of T) has eight Nobel Laureates in its present and past faculty and alumni. The university is also the home of the Fields Institute, a worldwide leader in mathematical research. U of T was the first university in North America to offer actuarial education—exams dating back to 1885 include questions that make use of standard actuarial notation. The university is one of the Society of Actuaries’ Centers of Actuarial Excellence and is also part of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries’ University Accreditation Program. We will be celebrating (at least) 130 years of actuarial education at U of T along with the 50th ARC. In addition to that, 2015 marks the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries (CIA). Along with the usual conference banquet on Friday, August 7, there will be a CIA sponsored reception on Thursday to celebrate the CIA’s milestone year and recognize the strong affiliation between U of T’s actuarial program and the Canadian Institute. We have a lot of actuarial celebrating to do this year and we hope that you will join us.
At the time this article is being written, the local organizing committee is in the process of soliciting and arranging conference sessions on topics of particular interest. In addition to two plenary lectures and parallel paper presentation sessions, we have scheduled a lunchtime panel discussion presented by members of the Entrepreneurial Actuaries Section and at least one paper presentation session devoted to casualty insurance. We encourage other SOA sections and industry groups to propose sessions in their area of specialty.
We are planning some extracurricular activities for conference attendees. The Niagara region just south of Toronto has excellent wineries, the highly acclaimed Shaw Theatre Festival and, of course, Niagara Falls. One of the activities planned will be a Niagara Wine and Falls tour (possibly in that order). The conference website is www.arc2015.ca and has all the conference information we can think of. The deadline for submitting proposals for special session and research papers is May 30, 2015.
Toronto will host the Pan American Games in July, 2015. The games will be over by the time of the conference, but the Para Pan Games will begin just as the conference is ending. It is expected that hotel accommodations will be tight around the time leading up to the August 5-8 conference period. Conference attendees are encouraged to reserve accommodations as early as possible. Links to hotels and University residences are available at the conference website.
Toronto is the financial center of Canada and has a vibrant arts and cultural community. Toronto has one of the most diverse multicultural populations of any large city in the world. An intensive study by The Economist (Intelligence Unit) has shown that Toronto is the world’s best city in which to live and is also number one in North America on their Safe Cities Index 2015. We invite you to discover what a great place Toronto is to live and visit.
The chair of the local organizing committee for the conference is Sam Broverman. You can contact him at sam@utstat.toronto.edu or +1.416.978.4453. Please do not hesitate to contact him with any questions you might have about the conference or with any suggestions for topics for conference sessions.