Biography

Runhuan Feng is a Professor of Mathematics, Statistics, Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering, State Farm Companies Foundation Endowed Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the Faculty Lead for Finance and Insurance Sector at the University of Illinois System’s Discovery Partner Institute in Chicago. He is the Director of Actuarial Science, the Founding Director of MS in Predictive Analytics and Risk Management at the University of Illinois. Runhuan is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and a Chartered Enterprise Risk Analyst.

He has a wide spectrum of research interests in mathematics and economics of risk and uncertainty in the financial world. He has published extensively on top-tier actuarial and quantitative finance journals. He is an Associate Editor of Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, North American Actuarial Journal, Methodology and Computing in Applied Probability, Annals of Actuarial Science, and Quantitative Finance and Economics.

As an applied scientist, Runhuan strongly believes that most interesting research problems are discovered in response to the changing needs of the industry and the society. He co-founded the Illinois Risk Lab, which facilitates research activities that integrate experiential learning for Illinois students and address industrial problems. Runhuan serves as an independent consultant to many corporations and startups, and provides expert testimonies to law firms for public policy assessment and actuarial analysis. His consulting work has been used by Illinois General Assembly for pension-related legislative proposals. Runhuan’s research has been recognized in the practitioners' community through his applied technical contributions and presentations as invited speakers at industry conferences. Runhuan is also a strong advocate for industry-academic partnerships. He currently serves on the Society of Actuaries' Research Executive Committee and served previously as the Chair of the SOA Education and Research Section Council.

His recent interests are on business designs in decentralized finance and insurance and how distributed technologies can be best utilized to serve the public at large and to address global risks and challenges.