Debbie J. Dupuis is a Professor at the Department of Decision Sciences at HEC Montréal. Her research focuses on Extreme Value Theory , Robust Statistics , and Statistical Modeling , with applications in Environmental Data Analysis , Climate Change , and Financial Engineering . M.Sc. (Mathematics and Statistics) - Queen’s University Ph.D. (Mathematics and Statistics) - University of New Brunswick She supervises M.Sc. and Ph.D. students in Financial Engineering and Business Analytics , with projects related to Climate Derivatives , Extreme Value Modeling , and Environmental Risk . Her recent work includes modeling Mesoscale Convective Systems , analyzing Urban Heat Island Persistence , and studying Causal Mechanisms in Hydrological Extremes . Key publications span robust statistical methods, environmental extremes, and financial risk. She is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and a member of GERAD (Group for Research in Decision Analysis). Awards include editorial roles at Journal of the American Statistical Association and contributions to methodological advancements like Robust VIF Regression .
Philippe d'Astous is an Associate Professor in the Department of Finance at HEC Montréal. He holds a PhD in Risk Management and Insurance from Georgia State University (2016). His research focuses on Household Finance, Financial Institutions, and Applied Econometrics. He leads the Financial Education Lab at HEC Montréal and is organizing the 6th CEAR-RSI Household Finance Workshop (2025). He teaches courses like Wealth Management and has supervised over 15 graduate students in recent years. In 2021, he received the Prix d'excellence en pédagogie from HEC Montréal. His work examines topics such as financial advice quality, tax policy impacts, pandemic financial behaviors, and entrepreneurship dynamics. Key research areas include: Household financial decision-making under uncertainty Effects of tax-preferred savings vehicles Impact of financial literacy on retirement planning Behavioral responses to mortgage and loan policies Recent publications span journals like Journal of Banking & Finance , Journal of Financial Economics , and Canadian Journal of Economics . He actively collaborates with institutions including the Canadian government and financial regulators on policy-relevant studies.
Hong Li is a Professor in the Department of Economics and Finance at the Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics , University of Guelph (ranked #1 in Canada for Actuarial Science). He also holds an Adjunct Associate Professor position at the University of Waterloo's Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science. His research focuses on actuarial science, insurance economics, and data analytics applied to risk management challenges in longevity, climate, and agricultural sectors. Education : PhD in Econometrics & Operations Research, Tilburg University (2015) MPhil in Economics, Tilburg University (2012) B.A. in Finance, Xiamen University (2010) Research Interests include: Machine learning for insurance underwriting and pricing Mortality forecasting and longevity risk transfer Catastrophe bond design and climate risk modeling Optimization of index-based agricultural insurance Dynamic hedging strategies for financial institutions Awards : 2018 Bob Alting von Geusau Prize (best ASTIN Bulletin paper) University Research Award (2022-2023) Grants & Funding include: SSHRC Insight Development Grant ($69,623 CAD) NSERC Discovery Grant ($127,500 CAD) CAS Individual Grant ($18,000 USD) Teaching includes courses on risk management, actuarial economics, and financial econometrics at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Professional Service : Editorial Board Member: Annals of Actuarial Science and Journal of Risk and Insurance Member, Canadian Institute of Actuaries Academic Research Committee
Dr. Silvana Pesenti is an Associate Professor in the Department of Statistical Sciences at the University of Toronto, specializing in Insurance Risk Management. She joined the university in 2019 and holds a PhD from Cass Business School (London) and an MSc in Mathematics from ETH Zurich. Education: PhD, Cass Business School, London MSc in Mathematics, ETH Zurich Her research focuses on quantitative risk management , sensitivity analysis , model uncertainty , and dependence modelling . She has contributed to frameworks for stress testing and portfolio optimization under uncertainty. Recent work includes Portfolio Optimisation within a Wasserstein Ball (2022) and Reverse Sensitivity Testing: What does it take to break the Model? (2020), the latter winning the Peter Clark Prize. She leads the Actuarial Science Group at the University of Toronto and co-organizes the One World Actuarial Research Seminar (OWARS) series. Scientific Awards: 2022 Rising Star in Quant Finance (Risk.net) 2020 Peter Clark Prize 2019 Dorothy Shoichet Women Faculty Award of Excellence Her research is funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Connaught New Researcher Award. She collaborates with institutions like the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) and the Canadian Institute of Actuaries through the CANSSI Collaborative Research Team project on natural disaster risk assessment.
William H. Murphy is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the Edwards School of Business, University of Saskatchewan. He also holds a Visiting Scholar position at CEIBS (Shanghai Jiaotong University) since 2005. His academic journey includes prior roles at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Babson College, and the University of Auckland. Dr. Murphy is a distinguished educator, recognized with multiple teaching awards including the MBA Student Society Professor of the Year (2010-2011 and 2009-2010) and the Dean's Academic Staff Excellence in Teaching Award (2005). His research focuses on sales management, ethics, international business, quality management, and leadership. Recent projects include studies on SMEs' quality management practices, cross-cultural supply chain dynamics, and the impact of cultural diversity in strategic alliances. He has published in journals like Journal of Business Research , International Journal of Healthcare Management , and Industrial Marketing Management . Dr. Murphy actively consults and trains executives in sales management, key account strategies, and marketing leadership. His work emphasizes practical, actionable insights for businesses, as reflected in his book Doing Good Work Matters! , which provides guidance for professionals seeking to enhance workplace performance and fulfillment. Education: Ph.D. (Marketing), University of Wisconsin-Madison Service: Editorial Board Member, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management and Industrial Marketing Management Consulting: Clients include Fortune 500 firms in insurance, pharmaceuticals, and high-tech sectors His research has garnered significant attention, including over 3,500 downloads for his 2016 study on quality management in SMEs. He maintains an active online presence at williamhmurphy.com , offering free resources for marketing professionals and students.
Samuel Rufat is a prominent researcher affiliated with the Institut Universitaire de France (IUF), focusing on disaster risk, resilience, social vulnerability, and urban risk perception. His work bridges geography, environmental policy, and crisis management, with extensive publications in top journals such as Nature , Global Environmental Change , and Annals of the American Association of Geographers . Institution: Institut Universitaire de France Research Focus: Risk perception, flood resilience, climate adaptation, urban vulnerability, video games in geography Geographic Scope: France, Romania (Bucharest), global mountain regions, urban Europe His research interests center on understanding how individuals and communities perceive and respond to environmental risks, particularly floods and climate change. He critically examines the social, political, and spatial dimensions of vulnerability and resilience, emphasizing the role of equity, governance, and public participation. His work on video games as tools for urban simulation and risk education highlights innovative methodological approaches in geography. The analysis of his recent publications reveals a strong trend toward interdisciplinary, policy-relevant research. Themes include the validation of social vulnerability models, risk communication strategies, evacuation behavior in cities, and the integration of local knowledge in disaster risk reduction. His work increasingly emphasizes methodological rigor, comparative analysis, and the need for theory-practice integration in resilience science. Scientific recognition includes membership in the prestigious Institut Universitaire de France, reflecting national scholarly excellence. He has contributed to major research projects funded by ANR and the European Commission (H2020, COST). Risks – Evacuations – Resilience (ANR) H2020 ResiLoc COST Land4Flood ERC FiBeGa Rufat actively collaborates with a broad network of researchers across Europe and has advised or co-authored with early-career scholars. His work often involves interdisciplinary teams and contributes to shaping public policy on climate adaptation and disaster risk management. He has no listed grants as principal investigator in the provided text, but his involvement in major projects indicates significant research funding support. He is also engaged in theoretical debates, notably challenging simplistic notions of resilience and advocating for more nuanced, context-sensitive approaches. He has contributed to collective works on open data, guerrilla cartography, and the spatial dynamics of post-socialist cities like Bucharest. His role in the IUF suggests a senior academic position, likely at a French university, though the specific host institution is not named in the provided material. He is active in research dissemination through conferences and publications, with no indication of teaching or administrative duties.
Lars Stentoft is an Associate Professor jointly appointed with the Department of Statistical and Actuarial Sciences and the Department of Economics at Western University. His academic work bridges quantitative finance, computational methods, and financial econometrics, contributing significantly to option pricing theory and implementation. Based in office WSC 278, he maintains an active research program supported by major Canadian funding agencies. Dr. Stentoft's research focuses on computational finance, particularly in the areas of option pricing, financial econometrics, and simulation methods. His work demonstrates exceptional technical proficiency in developing and implementing advanced numerical methods for financial applications. He has made significant contributions to American option pricing through symmetry arguments, importance sampling techniques, and variance reduction methods. His research extends to GARCH modeling, variance risk premia, and the intersection of machine learning with financial prediction. Analysis of his recent publications reveals a strong trend toward increasingly sophisticated modeling of financial derivatives, with particular emphasis on computational efficiency. His work frequently addresses the practical implementation challenges of theoretical finance models, bridging the gap between academic research and real-world financial applications. The research spans traditional finance topics like option pricing while incorporating modern approaches such as machine learning for market prediction. Dr. Stentoft currently supervises multiple graduate students including PhD candidates Xize Ye and Xiaotian Zhu, and MSc student Kiera Sobolewski. His research is supported by significant funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Grant (2020-2025) and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI-JELF) Grant (2021-2026), demonstrating the importance and relevance of his work to the broader research community.
Frances R. Woolley is a Professor of Economics at Carleton University, where she has taught since 1990. She holds a B.A. from Simon Fraser University, an M.A. from Queen’s University, and a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics. Her research focuses on families, public policy, and gender inequality, with significant contributions to taxation policy, intra-household resource distribution, and feminist economics. She has authored influential papers on topics such as the political economy of university education, gender wage gaps, and family decision-making models. Woolley’s work frequently bridges academic research with public policy, as evidenced by her popular writing in outlets like the Globe and Mail and her blog on the Worthwhile Canadian Initiative. Her research awards include the 2001 Purvis Prize and the Vanderkamp Award. Beyond academia, Woolley has held leadership roles, including Secretary-Treasurer and President of the Canadian Economics Association, and served as an editorial board member for journals such as Feminist Economics . She has also engaged in professional service as Associate Dean of the Faculty of Public Affairs at Carleton University. Woolley’s recent publications emphasize interdisciplinary approaches to understanding household dynamics and policy impacts, reflecting her commitment to making economics accessible and relevant to broader societal issues.
Yunran Wei is a Tenure-track Assistant Professor at the School of Mathematics and Statistics, Carleton University. His research focuses on Quantitative Risk Management, Actuarial Science, Mathematical Finance, and FinTech/InsurTech. He holds a Ph.D. in Actuarial Science from the University of Waterloo, with supervisors Ruodu Wang and Gord Willmot, and has earned credentials including the Associate of the Society of Actuaries (ASA). Education: Ph.D. in Actuarial Science, University of Waterloo (Supervisors: Ruodu Wang, Gord Willmot) MMath in Statistics, University of Waterloo (Supervisor: Carole Bernard) BMath, Double Major in Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Finance, University of Waterloo Research Interests: Dr. Wei’s work bridges theoretical advancements in risk management and practical applications in financial markets. His research explores Cryptocurrency Market Risk , Risk Sharing Mechanisms , and Statistical Methods for Actuarial Applications . Recent projects analyze vulnerability in financial systems using conditional risk measures and investigate optimal allocations under heterogeneous beliefs. Awards & Funding: NSERC Discovery Grant (2023–2028) James C. Hickman Scholar Fellowship (2018–2019) Grants & Advising: As sole PI of NSERC grants totaling $39,500 CAD annually, Dr. Wei leads research teams focusing on risk analytics. His advising includes collaborations on cryptocurrency risk modeling and parametric risk measures. Professional Activities: Active contributor to journals like Mathematical Finance and Insurance: Mathematics and Economics , with a focus on advancing quantitative methods in finance and insurance.
Sarah Zheng is an Associate Professor at the Peter B. Gustavson School of Business, University of Victoria. She holds a PhD in Management from Boston University, an MA in Economics from Boston University, and a Bachelor of Economics from Peking University, China. Her research focuses on healthcare operations, service quality, and data-driven solutions to improve organizational performance. She employs econometric and machine learning techniques to analyze healthcare datasets, aiming to create evidence-based policies for managers and policymakers. Before joining UVic in 2018, she served as an assistant professor at Ithaca College and a lecturer at Boston University. She also contributed to Massachusetts health reform studies at Boston Medical Center. Her work has been published in journals like Production and Operations Management and Medical Care , and featured in media like U.S. News & World Report. Her current research explores how healthcare organizations can enhance performance through process-level improvements and patient engagement strategies. A key project investigates the moderating role of operational failures on workarounds and patient outcomes, using surveys of 4,000 nurses and patient data from 262 nursing units. She has received the 2022 Excellence in Research Award from Gustavson School of Business. She teaches Operations Management and Service Operations at the undergraduate level. She leads a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) grant on childhood obesity management using digital technology, totaling $443,700 (2020–2024).
Matthew Herder is an Assistant Professor at Dalhousie University, with cross-appointments to the Faculty of Medicine and Schulich School of Law. He serves as Director of the Health Law Institute and specializes in biomedical innovation policy, analyzing legal frameworks impacting healthcare technologies. Herder holds a Master of Science in Law from Stanford University, law degrees from Dalhousie, and a science degree from Memorial University. Education: Master of the Science of Law (Stanford Law School) Law Degrees (Dalhousie University) Bachelor's in Science (Memorial University) Professional Background: Former Visiting Professor of Law at Loyola University Chicago Kauffman Fellow at NYU School of Law Policy Consultant to Health Canada Clerk at the Federal Court of Canada Research Focus: Herder examines how laws and policies shape biomedical innovation, including drug regulation, clinical trial transparency, and public health governance. His work emphasizes equitable access to healthcare technologies and systemic reforms in regulatory agencies like the FDA and Health Canada. Grants & Awards: Funded by CIHR, SSHRC, Genome Canada, and the Royal Society of Canada. His research has informed parliamentary committees and international bodies like the OECD. Key Contributions: Advocacy for transparency in clinical trials, critiques of accelerated drug approvals, and policy recommendations to address opioid-related harms and pandemic preparedness. His interdisciplinary approach bridges legal, scientific, and public health perspectives.
Leilei Zeng is a Professor and Associate Chair (Research) at the University of Waterloo's Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science. She holds the Graham Trust Chair in Health Statistics. Her research focuses on statistical methodologies applied to health sciences, including event history analysis, longitudinal data modeling, and clinical trial design. She collaborates with researchers in aging, dementia, rheumatology, and environmental health. Dr. Zeng earned her Ph.D. in Biostatistics from the University of Waterloo in 2005. She previously served as an Assistant Professor at Simon Fraser University before joining Waterloo in 2011 as an Associate Professor. Her work addresses complex data challenges such as multivariate processes, incomplete observations, and measurement error in health-related studies. Her research interests span statistical methodology development for clinical and epidemiological studies, including the design of cancer trials, analysis of progression-free survival, and the integration of auxiliary information in longitudinal datasets. She has contributed to studies on maternal cortisol profiles, cognitive reserve in dementia, and the impact of environmental factors on health outcomes. Dr. Zeng’s publications emphasize rigorous statistical approaches to address real-world health data complexities. Her recent work highlights advancements in mitigating bias in intermittent data measurements and improving cohort study designs for disease progression analysis.
Gene Moo Lee is an Associate Professor in the Accounting and Information Systems Division at the UBC Sauder School of Business. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from UT Austin. His research focuses on AI in business contexts, cybersecurity, and data analytics, with notable contributions to understanding AI strategies, IT platforms, and workforce transformations. His work has been published in top journals like MIS Quarterly , Information Systems Research , and Journal of Management Information Systems . Education: BS (Korea University), MA (UT Austin), PhD (UT Austin). He has held roles at Samsung, Intel, Goldman Sachs, and others, and holds over 10 patents in mobile technologies. His Erdős number is 3. Research interests include AI's impact on industries, cybersecurity defense mechanisms, and the integration of robotics and service operations. His recent studies explore AI-driven innovation, mobile device management in remote work, and the effects of service robots on labor dynamics. He has supervised over a dozen PhD and Master’s students, including Jaecheol Park (2025 dissertation) and Myunghwan Lee (2023 proposal). Awards include AIS Distinguished Member (2021) and Reviewer of the Year (MISQ/ISR 2021). He serves as an AE for ISR and SE for Decision Support Systems . Key projects include the Data Analytics & AI Research Group, cyber risk assessment frameworks, and studies on generative AI in journalism and video content creation. His work bridges theory and practice, addressing real-world challenges in digital transformation and AI ethics.
Andrea Craig is an Assistant Professor in Economics, Global Studies, and Sustainability (IGS) at the University of British Columbia Okanagan. She is affiliated with the Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and the Department of Economics, Philosophy and Political Science. Her research focuses on urban economics and applied microeconomics, using equilibrium models to analyze household decisions regarding residential location, commute modes, and policy impacts. Dr. Craig holds a PhD from Queen’s University. Her recent work examines public transit investments' effects on housing markets and distributional outcomes in Vancouver. She teaches courses such as Principles of Microeconomics and Urban Economics, and maintains an active role in graduate student supervision. Her publications span topics including transportation policy, housing economics, and labor market dynamics. Notable works include analyses of Vancouver’s SkyTrain expansion and immigrant health outcomes. While no formal awards are listed, her work demonstrates consistent contributions to urban and applied economic research. Labs/Teams: No specific labs or teams are explicitly mentioned in the provided materials.
Claire Boone is an Assistant Professor at McGill University with a joint appointment between the Department of Economics and the Department of Equity, Ethics, and Policy in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. She also serves as an Associate Investigator at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC), specifically within the Cardiovascular Health Across the Lifespan Program. Her work bridges health economics, policy analysis, and clinical decision-making to improve healthcare delivery systems. Dr. Boone earned her PhD in Health Policy and Health Economics from UC Berkeley and holds a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree. Prior to joining McGill, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business Center for Applied AI and worked as a research scientist in the Health Research Accelerator group at Providence. Dr. Boone's research focuses on understanding how clinicians make decisions and how to improve health care delivery through rigorous economic analysis. As a health economist, she studies the real-world impacts of healthcare delivery using big data and quasi-experimental methods to evaluate policies like financial incentives for doctors or new tools like AI decision support. Her work often examines how reminders, nudges, and system changes can improve preventive care and chronic disease management. She has conducted research in diverse settings including Chile, Kenya, and the United States, addressing questions of health equity, access to care, and the impact of early-life nutrition on long-term health outcomes. Her research spans multiple methodological approaches and addresses critical healthcare questions including clinical decision-making discretion, value-based payment models, AI adoption in healthcare, and the long-term health impacts of early-life nutritional exposures. Her findings on sugar rationing in early life and its protective effects against chronic disease received particularly widespread attention in both academic and media circles. Dr. Boone has secured significant research funding to support her work on healthcare delivery systems, behavioral interventions, and health policy evaluation. Her research often involves large-scale natural experiments and randomized field trials to generate evidence that can inform health system improvements across different healthcare settings and populations. While specific details about her laboratory or research team are not provided in the available information, her collaborative work suggests she leads or participates in multidisciplinary research teams involving economists, clinicians, epidemiologists, and data scientists to tackle complex questions in healthcare delivery and policy.
