The newly appointed ASE professor analyses large data sets to improve financial risk management. The research she conducts in collaboration with industry partners contributes to the development and implementation of new techniques in data science, statistics and machine learning. For example, she used telematics from a motor vehicle insurance product to study driving behaviour, examined socioeconomic disparities in mortality data, and she explored how details are used at the level of damage to estimate provisions.

ASE chair Peter Boswijk: ‘Over the past few years, Katrien Antonio has enthusiastically explored the role of Big Data in the actuarial profession and integrated this in her teaching. This makes her the ideal person to hold the new chair in Actuarial Data Science. Her appointment enhances the ASE’s Actuarial Science & Mathematical Finance group and strengthens the faculty’s efforts in the area of Responsible Digital Transformations.’

Teaching

Antonio will teach in the Actuarial Science Bachelor’s, Master’s and Executive Master’s programmes. She will develop course materials (including digital materials) appropriate to these programmes. She will enthusiastically take on her teaching role to teach students about the fundamentals of actuarial mathematics and new developments in the insurance sector related to data science.

About Katrien Antonio

Antonio received her PhD in mathematics at KU Leuven in 2007. In the same year she commenced working as a lecturer in Actuarial Science at UvA Economics and Business. She has also worked as a lecturer in the same field at KU Leuven since 2010. In 2017 she was appointed professor of Actuarial Science and Insurance Analytics at KU Leuven. In addition to this work, she is also co-director of the Research Centre for Longevity Risk recently established by the UvA.