Presented By: Special Events - Department of Mathematics
2025 Van Eenam Lectures
Ruodu Wang, PhD, University of Waterloo
Lectures each day November 18-20, 2025 from 4-5 pm in East Hall.
There will be a reception Tuesday at 5 pm in the Math Upper Atrium.
Lecture 1, November 18, 4 pm, East Hall 1360: E-values and e-processes: Theory and applications
E-values and e-processes are potential alternatives to p-values as measures of uncertainty, significance and evidence. We first briefly introduce the theory of e-values and e-processes, and then briefly discuss their applications in four areas: a) Combining dependent p-values; b) Selective inference procedures; c) Backtesting risk measures; d) Online large language models (LLM) watermark detection.
Lecture 2, November 19, 4 pm East Hall 1360: Risk aversion, insurance propensity, and choice under dependence
We provide a foundation of risk aversion by showing that this attitude is fully captured by the propensity to seize insurance opportunities. Our foundation well accords with the commonly held prudential interpretation of risk aversion that dates back to the seminal works of Arrow (1963) and Pratt (1964). These analyses are special cases of results in the general framework of choice under dependence.
Lecture 3, November 20, 4 pm East Hall 4448: Bridging pure risk and ambiguity in risk measures and optimization
We discuss optimization and modeling of ambiguity in risk management and decision making. We first discuss two different approaches in optimization under uncertainty, the worst-case risk approach and the model aggregation approach. Then we present a mathematical framework using a sigma-algebra to distinguish between pure risks and ambiguity.
Dr. Ruodu Wang is Tier-1 Canada Research Chair in Quantitative Risk Management and Professor of Actuarial Science and Quantitative Finance at the University of Waterloo. He received his PhD in Mathematics (2012) from the Georgia Institute of Technology, after completing his Bachelor (2006) and Master’s (2009) degrees at Peking University. He holds editorial positions in 8 leading journals in actuarial science, operations research, statistics, and economics, including Co-Editor of ASTIN Bulletin - The Journal of the International Actuarial Association and Co-Editor of the European Actuarial Journal. Among other international awards and recognitions, he is the first winner of the SOA Actuarial Science Early Career Award (2021) from the Society of Actuaries, and a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (elected 2022). His research papers are published in top journals across a wide range of scientific fields, such as the American Economic Review, the Annals of Statistics, the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society (Series B), Management Science, Operations Research, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Van Eenam Lectures: This lecture series is funded by the Weltha McLachlan Van Eenam, Marjorie Van Eenam Butcher and Robert Ward Butcher Actuarial/Financial Mathematics Fund.
The Fund was established in memory of the Esteemed Emeritus Professor Cecil J. Nesbitt who was a dear friend of Marjorie Van Eenam Butcher (pictured) and Robert Ward Butcher. The fund was created as part of the Weltha McLachlan Van Eenam Memorial Fund to benefit Actuarial/Financial Mathematics in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Michigan.
There will be a reception Tuesday at 5 pm in the Math Upper Atrium.
Lecture 1, November 18, 4 pm, East Hall 1360: E-values and e-processes: Theory and applications
E-values and e-processes are potential alternatives to p-values as measures of uncertainty, significance and evidence. We first briefly introduce the theory of e-values and e-processes, and then briefly discuss their applications in four areas: a) Combining dependent p-values; b) Selective inference procedures; c) Backtesting risk measures; d) Online large language models (LLM) watermark detection.
Lecture 2, November 19, 4 pm East Hall 1360: Risk aversion, insurance propensity, and choice under dependence
We provide a foundation of risk aversion by showing that this attitude is fully captured by the propensity to seize insurance opportunities. Our foundation well accords with the commonly held prudential interpretation of risk aversion that dates back to the seminal works of Arrow (1963) and Pratt (1964). These analyses are special cases of results in the general framework of choice under dependence.
Lecture 3, November 20, 4 pm East Hall 4448: Bridging pure risk and ambiguity in risk measures and optimization
We discuss optimization and modeling of ambiguity in risk management and decision making. We first discuss two different approaches in optimization under uncertainty, the worst-case risk approach and the model aggregation approach. Then we present a mathematical framework using a sigma-algebra to distinguish between pure risks and ambiguity.
Dr. Ruodu Wang is Tier-1 Canada Research Chair in Quantitative Risk Management and Professor of Actuarial Science and Quantitative Finance at the University of Waterloo. He received his PhD in Mathematics (2012) from the Georgia Institute of Technology, after completing his Bachelor (2006) and Master’s (2009) degrees at Peking University. He holds editorial positions in 8 leading journals in actuarial science, operations research, statistics, and economics, including Co-Editor of ASTIN Bulletin - The Journal of the International Actuarial Association and Co-Editor of the European Actuarial Journal. Among other international awards and recognitions, he is the first winner of the SOA Actuarial Science Early Career Award (2021) from the Society of Actuaries, and a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (elected 2022). His research papers are published in top journals across a wide range of scientific fields, such as the American Economic Review, the Annals of Statistics, the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society (Series B), Management Science, Operations Research, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Van Eenam Lectures: This lecture series is funded by the Weltha McLachlan Van Eenam, Marjorie Van Eenam Butcher and Robert Ward Butcher Actuarial/Financial Mathematics Fund.
The Fund was established in memory of the Esteemed Emeritus Professor Cecil J. Nesbitt who was a dear friend of Marjorie Van Eenam Butcher (pictured) and Robert Ward Butcher. The fund was created as part of the Weltha McLachlan Van Eenam Memorial Fund to benefit Actuarial/Financial Mathematics in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Michigan.
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