Insurance Mathematics

The first courses in Insurance Mathematics at ETH Zurich were held by J.G. Stocker (1856/57) and G.A. Zeuner (1858/59). Since then, scores of mathematics students of ETH Zurich have become actuaries (insurance mathematicians) using their quantitative skills for solving problems in insurance and related fields. Within the Department of Mathematics, Insurance Mathematics is a well established field of research, with actuarial teaching nowadays organized through RiskLab. The latter was founded on October 7, 1994, to address the increasing complexity of insurance and financial products together with the quantitative demands coming from a changing regulatory environment. Whereas RiskLab, through its members and guests, very much bundles specific insurance related research within life, non-life and re-insurance, it also branches out into areas from neighbouring fields like probability theory, statistics, numerical methods and operations research. Examples include the modelling of rare events and quantitative risk management. An important aspect of the research done within RiskLab is its close affinity to Stochastic Finance. Together they form the group "Insurance Mathematics and Stochastic Finance" at the Department of Mathematics of ETH Zurich.

Besides the participation in the teaching of general mathematics courses throughout ETH Zurich, RiskLab is responsible for the organization of the Zurich-based part of the academic education towards the recognised professional diploma "external page Actuary SAA" (fully qualified actuary of the external page Swiss Association of Actuaries). Most of the courses required for this "Actuary SAA" professional diploma can be completed during the regular master degrees offered by the Department of Mathematics. See also