The President (Dr D. J. P. Hare, F.I.A.): It is a great pleasure now for me to celebrate two honorary fellowship awards. We have a policy within the Institute and Faculty of inviting eminent academics and other business leaders to join our Institute and Faculty through honorary fellowship when they have a history of service to the actuarial profession, a history of eminence in related fields or have done something particularly significant for the Institute and Faculty and have been championing our cause.

We are keen to recognise that not just as a prize for what they have done, but as a sign that we want to work with them in the future and build even closer ties. That is very much the case with the two honorary fellowships that I am about to present.

The first one is to Professor Wai-Sum Chan of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

One of the very first things that I did in my first visit to China was to take part in the ceremony to present the accreditation from the Institute and Faculty to the Chinese University of Hong Kong. I well remember being taken up to the dean’s office. It was a very grand occasion and it was obvious how special it was to the university. It was also very special to us.

The Institute and Faculty has been wanting to partner with the top universities in this part of the world as well as the top universities in the UK and elsewhere. I think that the first two universities that we partnered with were the Chinese University of Hong Kong and also Hong Kong University.

It is very much thanks to Professor Chan, and all the work he has done for many years in teaching actuarial science, setting up the exam courses and encouraging people to link up with the Institute and Faculty that we were able to give the accreditation to the Chinese University of Hong Kong. What that means is that students at the University, if they do well enough in their actuarial science exams, are automatically eligible for exemption from the corresponding ones from the Institute and Faculty.

Professor Chan’s academic achievements in teaching are nothing compared to his research achievements. I do not know if many of us have actually read 100 academic papers, but Professor Chan has written more than 100 academic papers. He has published in many different eminent journals, including our own British Actuarial Journal and the Annals of Actuarial Science. He has had teaching posts in Singapore as well as in Hong Kong. He is a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society in the UK. He is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries. He is a Fellow of the Singapore Actuarial Society and also the Hong Kong Society of Actuaries. His research is very much about the stochastic modelling of longevity and also of other financial risks.

He also has a particular interest in what we would know in the UK as the Ogden Tables. These are tables that are used in pricing compensation payments for claimants who have been injured in an accident and need to be given compensation to provide the care that they need for the rest of their lives. Professor Chan has championed this activity in Hong Kong. In fact, the equivalent of the Ogden Tables in Hong Kong are called the Chan Tables.

So it is with great delight that I ask Professor Chan to come up and receive this honorary fellowship certificate from the Institute and Faculty. I will ask Professor Chan to say a few words to us afterwards. Professor, congratulations.

Prof W.-S. Chan, H.F.I.A.: First of all, I should like to thank the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries for giving me this great honour.

When I first received an email from the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, my very first response was “Oh, do I need to fulfil the CPD requirement?” The answer is “Yes”, but fortunately I am also a member of the Society of Actuaries so it actually can be used for both bodies.

Finally, I should like to thank many of you. You might have a similar experience to mine. When I was doing actuarial exams I got a lot of support from my family, and also from my wife who is here today. She is a life actuary like Dr Hare. So I should like to thank her and everybody else for their support. Thank you very much.

Dr Hare: I suspect when you write a lot of the CPD it is probably quite easy to get it, but that is great! Thank you very much.

We are also privileged to have another very eminent academic from Hong Kong; this time from Hong Kong University. Professor Hailiang Yang has been teaching there for a number of years in the department of statistics and actuarial science. He is one of the leading researchers in Asia in our subject area.

I do not know quite how many papers Professor Yang has written. I am sure that it is many. Again, his interests are in models: in ruin theory, in optimal dividend strategies and optimal asset allocation, option pricing and equity-linked insurance products.

He is a graduate of the Inner Mongolia University. After that, he did postgraduate study at the University of Alberta in Canada, another lovely part of the world. He did post-doctorial study at the University of Waterloo, which is one of the eminent actuarial science universities in North America and in the Western hemisphere. Hong Kong University and Chinese University are, of course, some of the leading actuarial universities in this part of the world.

He is an Associate of the Society of Actuaries. He is Honorary Professor of the East China Normal University. He was one of the key leaders of the accreditation project at Hong Kong University. That is one of the other universities with which we are partnered in the Institute and Faculty. We value that link very much indeed. It is also the only university that I know that has more escalators in it than a department store. I do not know if you have ever been to Hong Kong University, but it is built on the side of a hill. Everything seems to rise steeply. But this man has risen to the top of his profession as he has risen to the top of his University.

We are very pleased for Professor Yang to receive this honorary fellowship certificate from us.

Prof H. Yang, H.F.I.A.: I just want to say thanks to the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries for giving me this honour. I would also like to thank all colleagues and friends who have helped me over the past 30 years and also my family members. Thank you.