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Wenjun Zhu (PhD, FSA, CERA) is an Associate Professor (with tenure) at Nanyang Business School (NBS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. She is Deputy Head of the Division of Finance and Co-Director of the Insurance Risk and Finance Research Centre (IRFRC) at NBS. She is also a Senator of NTU and a Faculty Affiliate at NTU’s Global Institute of Finance, Technology, and Society (GIFTS). She serves as an Associate Editor of Annals of Actuarial Science, Digital Finance and South African Actuarial Journal, and on the editorial boards of Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Risks, and Sustainable Agriculture and Environment.

Wenjun received her PhD in Actuarial Science from the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science at the University of Waterloo in 2015, becoming the department’s first PhD student admitted without a master’s degree. She holds bachelor’s degrees in Economics and Mathematics, and is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA) and a Chartered Enterprise Risk Analyst (CERA).

Her research develops statistical, quantitative and AI-driven methods for insurance and financial risk management, with a focus on climate change, agricultural insurance, mortality and longevity risk. Working closely with the insurance industry, actuarial professional bodies and governments, her research aims to advance insurance practice through state-of-the-art tools for more effective risk management. Her work has appeared in leading academic journals including Management Science, Nature Climate Change, Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, North American Actuarial Journal, Journal of Risk and Insurance, ASTIN Bulletin, and etc.

Wenjun was a Society of Actuaries James C. Hickman Scholar and received the 2023 Actuarial Science Early Career Award (Interview), awarded annually to one young researcher worldwide for exceptional research and potential as a future academic leader in actuarial science (Award Information). She also received the 2026 Nanyang Research Award (Young Investigator), the university’s highest recognition for researchers under 40 who have made outstanding contributions to extending the frontiers of knowledge (Award ebook). Beyond academia, she contributes to global climate policy as an invited expert at the IPCC AR7 Report Scoping Meeting (December 2024) and as a Lead Author for the IPCC Seventh Assessment Report (AR7).

Wenjun teaches courses in actuarial science, finance, climate risk management and risk analytics. She received the 2020 NBS Teaching Excellence Award (TEA) and was nominated for the MSc Financial Engineering Teacher of the Year Award in 2020 and the NBS Business Teacher of the Year Award in 2021.

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TalkUpcoming

ASTIN keynote

Keynote presentation at the 2nd ASTIN Bulletin Conference, hosted by the University of Naples Parthenope in Naples, Italy. Conference website

Award

Nanyang Research Award

Received the 2026 Nanyang Research Award (Young Investigator). Nanyang Awards 2026

Paper

Nature Climate Change publication

Published online in Nature Climate Change: “Enduring Impacts of El Niño on Life Expectancy in Past and Future Climates”. Paper

Event

Risk Sciences conference

Chaired the 2nd Risk Sciences Annual Conference at Wee Cho Yaw Plaza, Nanyang Business School. Conference webpage

Event

Longevity 20 conference

Chaired the 20th International Longevity Risk and Capital Markets Solutions Conference (L20) at Marina Bay, Singapore. Conference webpage

Grant

CRPO research grant

Joined as Co-PI on the CyberSG R&D Programme Office project “From Risk Identification to Risk Management: A Systematic Approach to Mitigating LLM Supply Chain Risks” (2025–2027); PI: Prof Xie Xiaofei.

Event

Promotion with tenure

Promoted to Associate Professor with tenure at Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University.

Award

Actuarial Science Early Career Award

Received the 2023 Actuarial Science Early Career Award, recognising exceptional scientific contributions to actuarial science at an early stage of an academic career. Interview