Description: This is the first article in the new "Fireside Chat" series which intends to honor highly accomplised academic actuaries and allow them to share their insights into academic careers with young scholars. This article is mainly based on an interview with Dr. Edward Frees (Jed), one of the most accomplished actuarial professors.

Description: In this article I want to share my experiences coordinating an actuarial program at the UCAP (Universities and Colleges with Actuarial Programs)-introductory level. Let’s start with some context of my institution. North Central College (NCC) is a private, four-year, comprehensive liberal arts college with a semester academic calendar. It has about 3,000 students, primarily undergraduate, and the campus is 28 miles (a 30-minute train ride) from downtown Chicago.

Description: Risks is an international, scholarly, peer-reviewed, open access journal for research and studies on insurance and financial risk management. An upcoming special issue is aimed at bringing novel research on quantitative modeling and empirical findings in finance and risk management to a broad audience of academic researchers, industry professionals and regulators.