VACANCIES : 5 PhD and 3 Post-doc positions in actuarial sciences and statistics, Belgium

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Insurance is a highly data driven business, where reliance on analytics for decision making is key. Data scientists, Actuaries and statisticians design risk transfers and require appropriate methods to model, to estimate and to predict risks. Insurers collect fine-grained, high-dimensional data, where both the presence of covariates of different types (e.g., continuous, factor, spatial) as well as the volume of the data are challenging.  At the same time, the response variables that matter in insurance are characterized by low frequency occurrences, severities or impacts that range from small to (very) large, presence of dependence among losses and incomplete losses due to censoring and truncation. Clearly, these challenges require sound methodological contributions in statistical modelling to avoid bias, loss of information and wrongly selected variables or models.

In response to these challenges, the Institute of Statistics, Biostatistics and Actuarial Sciences (ISBA) of the UCLouvain and  the KU Leuven’s Faculty of Economics and Business open vacancies for

a.   1 PhD position at UCLouvain. Topic: New unsupervised machine learning methods in actuarial sciences

b.   1 PhD position at KULeuven. Topic: New regularization methods in actuarial sciences.

c.   1 PhD position (2 years at UCLouvain, 2 years at KULeuven). Topic: Dynamic risk prediction and prevention with cure models for recurrent events, censored quantile regression and joint models

d.   1 PhD position at UCLouvain. Topic: Individual contributions to establish fairness and safeguard viability of risk sharing systems

e.   1 PhD position at KULeuven. Topic: On shifting insurance paradigms via dynamic pricing and fairness

f.   1 Post-Doc position at UCLouvain (2 years). Topic: Better access to life and health insurance covers for risks that are either non-standard or perceived as non-standard

g.   1 Post-Doc position (2 years at KULeuven). Topic: Dynamic risk prediction and prevention with cure models for recurrent events, censored quantile regression and joint models

h.   1 Post-Doc position (1 year at UCLouvain, 1 year at KULeuven). Topic: Novel, transparent and actuarially sound risk sharing rules

as part of the joint 2022 Excellence of research (EOS) call entitled “ASTeRISK: Actuaries and STatisticians endeavour to design innovative, inclusive insurance products in a changing RISK landscape”

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Benefits

Research environment

Young researchers will become part of the Institute of Statistics, Biostatistics and Actuarial Sciences at UCLouvain (ISBA) and/or the Faculty of Economics and Business in Leuven, an EQUIS accredited school. ISBA ranks 51-100 and KULeuven 30th in the worldwide QS subject-specific ranking in statistics and operational research (2021).

Selection process

Application

Please apply by filling in the web-based form available on : https://uclouvain.be/en/research-institutes/lidam/isba/application-eos.html

The following documents will be requested:

• a letter of motivation, clearly mentioning the position (PhD / Postdoc) for which you apply
• your curriculum vitae, including a list of publications (if applicable)
• a list of passed courses and grades
• a copy of diplomas
• at least one reference letter.

All required documents must be uploaded (as a single pdf file) via this web-based form except the reference(s) letter(s) that must be sent by email directly by the referee(s) to Nancy Guillaume (nancy.guillaume@uclouvain.be) within an email entitled “EOS – Reference letter – full name of the candidate”.

Applications will be considered until the 15 December 2022 (applications received after December, 15th will be considered as they arrive, until the position is filled). Only duly completed applications can be taken into account.

Starting date : As soon as possible (date to be agreed upon by all parties).

Additional comments

For further information, please contact

• Prof. M. Denuit (Michel.denuit@uclouvain.be)
• Prof. A. El Ghouch (anouar.elghouch@uclouvain.be)
• Prof. D. Hainaut (donatien.hainaut@uclouvain.be)
• Prof. C. Legrand (catherine.legrand@uclouvain.be)

For administrative questions or for more information regarding the application procedure,

please contact Nancy Guillaume (UCLouvain: nancy.guillaume@uclouvain.be)

REQUIREMENTS

Offer Requirements

REQUIRED LANGUAGES

ENGLISH: Good

Skills/Qualifications

Job requirements

For the PhD positions: Master degree in statistics, actuarial sciences or a related discipline. The diploma must have been obtained with at least distinction or an equivalent grade. Candidates who will obtain their master degree at the latest in January 2022 are also invited to apply.

For the Post-doc position: PhD in statistics, actuarial sciences or a related discipline. Candidates who will defend their PhD at the latest in September 2022 are also invited to apply. Good knowledge of written and spoken English is required. Knowledge of French is not required.

Terms of employment

For the PhD positions: A tax-free monthly grant of up to 4 years. The candidate might be involved on a small scale into some teaching activities.

For the Post-doc position: A 1-year contract, renewable for a second year.