Gareth Peters

Professor Gareth Peters is the Janet & Ian Duncan Endowed Chair of Actuarial Science and holds the Chair in Statistics for Risk and Insurance at the Department of Statistics & Applied Probability, University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB). His research focuses on statistical solutions for risk and insurance, with emphasis on actuarial science, financial engineering, environmental data analysis, and cybersecurity risk. He has received notable recognition including the 2024 IFoA Peter-Clark Prize, the oldest actuarial award established in 1891.

His academic contributions span advanced statistical modeling techniques for financial markets, climate-related risk analysis, and healthcare analytics. Notable projects include developing methodologies for green bond valuation, cyber insurance frameworks, and machine learning applications in audiology and speech disorders. He has pioneered software tools such as CovRegpy for covariance regression and DivFolio for portfolio divestment analysis.

• Educations: Advanced degrees in statistics and actuarial science (specific details not provided)
• Professional Memberships: Fellow of multiple academic societies including the Royal Statistical Society and Institute of Mathematics and its Applications

Research interests include:

• Statistical causality in financial and environmental time series
• Mortality modeling incorporating long-memory processes
• Quantifying climate change impacts on energy consumption
• Machine learning for cybersecurity risk mitigation

His recent work emphasizes interdisciplinary applications of statistics in climate finance, sustainable investing, and precision agriculture. Over 2020-2025, his publications explore topics ranging from municipal green bonds to vocal analysis for Parkinson’s diagnostics.

Awards:

• 2024 IFoA Peter-Clark Prize
• Elected Member of ISI (International Statistical Institute)
• IEEE Senior Member

Labs/Initiatives: Develops open-source software packages for statistical analysis (e.g., AdvEMDpy, PyKronecker) and contributes to regulatory frameworks via tools like AuditChain for blockchain-based trading audits.