Description: It highlights key initiatives and leadership changes within the SOA Education and Research (E&R) Section in year 2025.

Description: The Society of Actuaries' managing director of actuarial research provided an overview of research activities including the funding behind research projects and the staff/volunteers involved with research.

Description: This article announces the top five graduate student presentations from the 44th Actuarial Research Conference in 2009.

Description: Read the December 2019 issue of Expanding Horizons, published by the Education and Research Section. Newsletters provide practical information for the working actuary, articles on trends that impact sections and news about section activities.

Description: This interview with Andrés Villegas, an Associate Professor at UNSW Sydney, explores his journey from Colombia to Australia, his research on mortality modeling, and his contributions like the R package StMoMo. He discusses the importance of mentorship, industry-academia collaboration, and the role of actuaries in addressing global issues such as population aging and climate risk.

Description: The article discusses the use of the keyword strategy in teaching. The literature with a negative view of keywords is reviewed and responded to by advocating keywords with multiple meanings supplemented with relevant instructional guidance. Numerous examples are presented from the SOA preliminary exams. Additionally, advanced use of keywords to problems not having them are presented.

Description: Milliman has embarked on a multiyear aspirational effort with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)’s Insurance and Risk Financing Facility (IRFF) to build actuarial capacity and, as a result, support economic development in the developing world. The Global Actuarial Initiative (GAIN) was launched and announced at the 77th United Nations General Assembly on September 18, 2022 and aims to enhance and strengthen the actuarial profession in multiple target countries. GAIN efforts are focused on the goal of sustainable economic development by advancing effective risk management in developing nations. The interventions we embark on through GAIN will vary by country, reflecting its current actuarial needs, what we see as opportunities for improvement, and more importantly what the local stakeholders see as the most useful activities.

Description: In this article, the incoming chairperson of Expanding Horizons addresses the section and talks about the section’s goals for the next year.