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Professor Bernard Wong

Professor Bernard Wong

Head of School

PhD (ANU)

Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia

BCOM(Hons) in Actuarial Studies (Macq)

Business School
School of Risk and Actuarial Studies

Professor Bernard Wong is Head of the School, Risk and Actuarial Studies at the University of New South Wales, Australia, which has grown to be one of the largest and most successful risk and actuarial departments in the world in both its education and research programs, including being global ranked #1 business school in risk, insurance and actuarial research. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia, a Fulbright Scholar, and obtained his PhD from the Australian National University.

His current research interests span two interrelated main areas: AI/ML enhanced actuarial methods for risk modelling, and capital modelling for risk and insurance businesses - especially under climate change, dependence, and extremes. Bernard is co-lead of the Innovations in Risk, Insurance, and Superannuation (IRIS) Knowledge Hub, a chief investigator in the UNSW Institute of Climate Risk and Response, and founding member of the Business AI Lab. His research is funded via Australian Research Council Linkage and Discovery Project schemes, and he has been recognised via the award of numerous prizes, including the Melville Practitioner Prize, Hachemeister Prize (twice) and the Taylor-Fry Silver Prize.

Bernard has taught most of the courses corresponding to the professional actuarial syllabus, with a particular focus in recent years in the areas in innovations in the areas of actuarial data science, and in quantitative models of enterprise risk management.

Bernard is currently on the Board of ASTIN, the non-life insurance section of the International Actuarial Association, and previously also served on the Australian Actuaries Institute Data Analytics (Data Science) Practice Committee.
E-mail
bernard.wong@unsw.edu.au
Location
Room 647, Business School Building
  • Media | 2016
    Avanzi B; Taylor GC; Wong B, 2016, Construction of detailed correlation structures across GI business segments,
    Media | 2015
    Avanzi B; Taylor GC; Wong B, 2015, Are correlations real or imagined?,

  • 2020-2022: Tang, Q., Avanzi, B., and B. Wong. Extreme Value Theory Approaches to Insurance in a Catastrophic Environment, ARC Discovery Grant, AUD310,000.
  • 2013-2016: Avanzi, B., Wong, B., Taylor, G., Britt, S., Cakan, Y., Koob, D., Modelling claim dependencies for the general insurance industry with economic capital in view: An innovative approach with stochastic processes. ARC Linkage Grant, with Partner Organisations Allianz Australia, Insurance Australia Group, and Suncorp. AUD 320,861
  • 2014-15: Avanzi, B., Taylor, G., and B. Wong. General Forms of Dependency in Chain Ladder Structures. Actuaries Institute, Australian Actuarial Research Grant, AUD 10,000.
  • 2012-13: Chief Investigator (with Benjamin Avanzi and Greg Taylor) Australian Actuarial Research GrantAn innovative approach to stochastic claims reserving with dependence, AUD 35,000 
  • 2011: Chief Investigator (with Benjamin Avanzi) UNSW Business School Research Grant, Optimal dividend problems in surplus models with stochastic firm prospect, AUD 25,000 
  • 2010: Chief Investigator (with Benjamin Avanzi) Australian Actuarial Research Grant, Institute of Actuaries of Australia, AUD 20,000 On the economic value of aggregating dependent portfolios 
  • 2010: Chief Investigator (with John Evans) Australian Actuarial Research Grant, Institute of Actuaries of Australia, AUD 26,000 Adequacy of the SGL & Age Pension System to fund the retirement needs of Australians 
  • 2010: Chief Investigator UNSW Business School Special Research Grant, AUD 9,724 Asset Liability Management for Equity-linked Insurance Products by Benchmarking​

  • Hachemeister Prize, 2023 awarde by the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS) for the paper: Ensemble Distributional Forecasting for Insurance Loss Reserving
  • Taylor Fry General Insurance Silver Prize, 2018, awarded by the Actuaries Institute for: How to proxy the unmodellable: Analysing granular insurance claims in the presence of unobservable or complex drivers
  • Hachemeister Prize, 2017 awarded by the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS) for the paper: Correlations between insurance lines of business: An illusion or a real phenomenon? Some methodological considerations (2016, ASTIN Bulletin, 46:2)
  • Fulbright Award, 2001-2002. (Australian-American Fulbright Commission)
  • H M Jackson Price, 2005 (Institute of Actuaries of Australia).
  • A M Parker Prize, 2003 (Institute of Actuaries of Australia).
  • Melville Practitioner Prize, 2000 (Institute of Actuaries of Australia).

Current

Member of the Board - ASTIN; Co-Chair of Scientific Committee

Member of Management Board, ASTIN Bulletin

 

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Member, Actuaries Institute Data Analytics Practice Committee

Member, Actuaries Institute Exemptions Sub-Committee