Andrew Cairns

Andrew Cairns is Professor of Financial Mathematics at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, and is well known both in the UK and internationally for his research in financial risk management for pension plans and life insurers. These interests in the assessment of financial risk have led to further research in the field of financial mathematics. Within this field he has developed a new model for bond-price dynamics for use in the measurement and management of long-term interest-rate risks in pensions and life Insurance. More recently he has been working on the modelling of longevity risk: how this can be modelled, measured and priced, and how it can be transferred to the financial markets. Amongst his work in this field, he has developed a number of new and innovative stochastic mortality models.

He is an active member of the UK and international actuarial profession in both research and education: he qualified as a Fellow of the Faculty of Actuaries in 1993; since 1996 he has been editor of the leading international actuarial journal ASTIN Bulletin; and in 2005 he was elected as a corresponding member of the Swiss Association of Actuaries.

In 2004 Professor Cairns completed a textbook entitled "Interest Rate Models: An Introduction" published by Princeton University Press.

His research activities include modelling of longevity risk and the associated development of a longevity-linked securities market, interest-rate modelling, and financial risk management for defined-benefit and defined-contribution pension plans.