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staff Profiles
Professor David Dickson
In 1993 David joined the Centre for Actuarial Studies as a Senior Lecturer, having previously
worked at the Government Actuary’s Department in London and at Heriot-Watt University,
Edinburgh. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1997 and appointed to the Chair of
Actuarial Studies in March 2000. David’s main research interest is ruin theory and he has
published numerous articles on this topic in leading international actuarial journals.
He is also author of the books “An Introduction to Actuarial Studies” (with M E Atkinson)
and “Insurance Risk and Ruin”, which was awarded the H M Jackson Memorial Prize of
the Institute of Actuaries of Australia in 2006.
David is a Fellow of the Faculty of Actuaries (Scotland) and of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia. He is also Adjunct
Professor in the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science at the University of Waterloo, an Associate Editor of
Insurance: Mathematics & Economics, of North American Actuarial Journal and of British Actuarial Journal, and
a member of the Editorial Board of the ASTIN Bulletin.
Professor Daniel Dufresne
After doing a first degree in mathematics, Daniel worked in actuarial consulting and then did
a PhD in actuarial science. A Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, Daniel has since been teaching
and doing research in probability and financial mathematics, in Canada and Australia.
His research topics have included pension funding and accounting, stochastic difference
equations, perpetuities, integral functionals of Brownian motion, average options, simulation
for option pricing, bank credit line commitments.
Associate Professor Mark Joshi
Mark obtained a BA in mathematics (top of year) from the University of Oxford in 1990,
and a PhD in pure mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1994.
He was an assistant lecturer in the department of pure mathematics and mathematical
statistics at Cambridge University from 1994 to 1999. Following this he worked for the Royal
Bank of Scotland from 1999 to 2005 as a quantitative analyst at a variety of levels, finishing
as the Head of Quantitative Research for Group Risk Management. He joined the Centre for
Actuarial Studies in November 2005 as an Associate Professor. Mark has written two books
on mathematical finance, “The concepts and practice of mathematical finance,” and “C++
design patterns and derivatives pricing.”
His principal research interest is derivatives pricing. This involves computing the prices of complicated contracts defined
in terms of interest rate movements and the prices of company stocks. A very simple example of such a contract is a stock
option - the right, but not the obligation, to buy a stock on some fixed date in the future at a pre-agreed price.
Dr David Pitt
David completed a BEc, majoring in Actuarial Studies and a BSc, majoring in Statistics at
Macquarie University in 1997 with an Actuarial Scholarship from the AMP. After graduation,
David worked with the AMP as an actuarial analyst for two years, specialising in the pricing
and valuation of both personal and commercial lines of general insurance business. In addition
to working at the AMP, David also completed the requirements for Fellowship of the Institute
of Actuaries of Australia. He then returned to academia in 2000 and completed his PhD
specialising in the use of modern statistical methods in the analysis of income protection
insurance.
David’s current research interests include flowgraph modelling, income protection insurance and reverse mortgages.
He has published in the Australian Actuarial Journal, Agenda, Teaching Statistics and the Annals of Actuarial Science. He
is also a very enthusiastic teacher having been awarded the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence at the ANU
in 2004 and The University of Melbourne Faculty of Economics and Commerce, Outstanding Lecturer Award, April 2006.
Dr Shuanming Li
Shuanming obtained a BSc in Applied Mathematics from Tianjin University in 1992,
and MEc from Renmin University of China in 1995. After graduation, he worked as a lecturer
in Renmin University from 1995-1999. Shuanming joined the Centre for Actuarial Studies as
a senior lecturer in December 2004, after finishing his PhD in Actuarial Science from Concordia
University (1999-2004). He is also working to complete the requirements for an Associate
Member of the Society of Actuaries.
Shuanming’s research interests cover Risk and Ruin Theory, Stochastic Modelling in Insurance
and Finance, and Applied Probability. Since he finished his PhD, he has published more than
ten papers in the leading international actuarial and applied probability journals, such as Scandinavian Actuarial Journal,
ASTIN Bulletin, Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, North American Actuarial Journal, and Advances in Applied
Probability. He is currently involved in teaching the Honours subject (Risk Theory I) and the third year subject (Models
for Insurance and Finance).
Dr Xueyuan Wu
Xueyuan obtained a BSc (Probability and Mathematical Statistics, 1997) and an MSc
(Probability and Statistics, 2000) from Nankai University, China. He finished his PhD in Actuarial
Science from the University of Hong Kong in 2004. In early 2006, he joined the Centre for
Actuarial Studies as a Lecturer, and he will teach and co-ordinate the 3rd year actuarial subject
Contingencies and the 2nd year subject Financial Mathematics I.
His research interests mainly focus on correlated risk models, ruin theory and recursive
calculations for ruin probabilities. So far he has published several research papers in one of
the top international actuarial journals.
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