Rate My Professor Benjamin Avanzi

Benjamin Avanzi, PhD, is Professor of Actuarial Studies in the Centre for Actuarial Studies, Department of Economics, Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Melbourne, a position he has held since 2020. He earned his PhD in Actuarial Science in 2008 and Lic. oec. HEC in Business with a major in Actuarial Science in 2005, both from the University of Lausanne, Faculty of Business and Economics. Avanzi possesses professional qualifications including FIAA (Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia), Actuary SAA (Swiss Association of Actuaries), CERA (Chartered Enterprise Risk Actuary), and GAICD (Graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors). Before his current appointment, he progressed from Lecturer to Associate Professor of Actuarial Studies at UNSW Sydney's Australian School of Business from 2008 to 2020. He also served as Professeur associé en actuariat (2015–2018) and Professeur agrégé en actuariat (2013–2015) at Université de Montréal's Département de Mathématiques et de Statistique. Earlier, Avanzi worked as an actuarial consultant in Switzerland and Canada and was Executive Chairman of the Board for a Swiss pension fund from 2006 to 2008. He currently serves as Editor of the ASTIN Bulletin: The Journal of the International Actuarial Association and Associate Editor of Insurance: Mathematics and Economics. Additionally, he is a member of the Management Board of the Theatre Royal in Hobart, Tasmania.

Avanzi's research expertise encompasses insurance risk and capital, climate resilience, development of stochastic models for risk understanding, management, forecasting, and transfer. Specific areas include dependence structures between general insurance lines for claims reserving, economic capital, pricing, and capital allocation; optimal control of risk theoretical surplus models such as reinsurance and stability; complex claims processes; machine learning applications in actuarial techniques like claims reserving and non-discrimination pricing; and climate risk modeling in insurance. His contributions extend to pensions and operations management risk modeling. Notable publications include the book AI Tools for Actuaries (2025, co-authored with Wüthrich et al.); "Ensemble distributional forecasting for insurance loss reserving" (Scandinavian Actuarial Journal, 2024); "Dynamic Financial Analysis (DFA) of General Insurers under Climate Change" (2025, awarded Melville and Carol Dolan Actuaries Summit Prizes); and "Correlations between insurance lines of business: An illusion or a real phenomenon? Some methodological considerations" (ASTIN Bulletin, 2016, Hachemeister Prize 2017). With 1700 citations and an h-index of 21 on Google Scholar, his work demonstrates substantial influence. Avanzi has received the Hachemeister Prize (Casualty Actuarial Society, 2017 and 2023), Taylor Fry General Insurance Seminar Silver Prize (2018), Highly Commended Paper Prize (Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, 2022), and Prize for Exceptional Distinction in Research (University of Melbourne Faculty of Business and Economics, 2024).