Read more about the Mortality Research Steering Group

The Mortality Research Steering Group is a group of actuaries and professionals from other disciplines who aim to advance mortality research through interaction and collaboration. The Group is chaired by James Orr. An article on the group appeared in the March issue of The Actuary and on the Magazine's website.

For further information about working with the group, contact: maria.lyons@actuaries.org.uk

Recent event - Joining forces on mortality and longevity

The Group organised a multidisciplinary conference on mortality and longevity in Edinburgh on 21-22 October. The conference brought together leading academics, researchers and practitioners in actuarial and medical science to consider, debate and share knowledge about longevity and mortality. The Conference, chaired by Professor Tom Kirkwood, focused on three work streams:

• Drivers for change (Leader: Stephen Richards FFA, Richards Consulting) 
• Individualised risk (Leader: Professor Diana Kuh, Director of the MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing and of the MRC National Survey of Health and Development)
• Cohorts (Leader: Professor Carol Jagger, University of Leicester)

The conference addressed a number of wide-ranging topics, including:

• Genetic predisposition for a healthy long life
• Are we ageing better at the highest ages?
• Lifetime body size and mortality risk
• The impact of lifestyle on longevity

Further details of the conference were published in the December issue of The Actuary and on the magazine's website

Papers from the conference will be published in a supplement to vol 15 of British Actuarial Journal in 2010. 

Previous events

Institute Sessional Meeting, 22 September 2008

• Scoping Mortality Research. Report of the Mortality Research Steering Group
  Institute Sessional Meeting held at Staple Inn Hall on 22 September 2008
• Webcast [Members log in]
• Additional references suggested by attendees at Sessional Meeting 

Mortality Experts Meeting, 3 March 2008

Around 50 invited guests from a range of disciplines attended the Mortality Experts Scoping Meeting on 3 March 2008 at Staple Inn. The meeting was chaired by Professor Tom Kirkwood, Director of the Institute for Ageing and Health at the University of Newcastle, who delivered the 2001 Reith Lecture, The end of age. The objective of the meeting was to explore how gaps in current research into mortality, identified in the report Scoping mortality research prepared by Dr Catriona Macdonald under the supervision of the Mortality Development Scoping Project Steering Group, might be identified and filled. The Project Steering Group recognises that collaboration between the actuarial profession and other disciplines will be beneficial in gaining new insights into mortality trends. 

• Scoping multi-disciplinary research into mortality 
  by Brian Ridsdale, CMI
• Scoping mortality research
  Powerpoint presentation of the findings of the Actuarial Profession's Mortality Developments Scoping Project
• Living ever longer?
  by Tom Kirkwood, Institute for Ageing and Health
• Scoping mortality research - a consultation document
  by Dr Catriona Macdonald
• Report on Mortality Experts Meeting for publication in the May 2008 issue of The Actuary

The impact of medical advances and lifestyle on mortality, 14 January 2008

Presentations by Professor Angus Macdonald FRSE, Professor Howard Waters, Tushar Chatterjee, Edward Roche and Dr Catriona Macdonald, followed by an open discussion at the Faculty Sessional Meeting on 14 January 2008

• Powerpoint presentation by Tushar Chatterjee; Catriona Macdonald; Angus Macdonald; Edward Roche; and Howard Waters
• Powerpoint presentation by Prof Simon Capewell, Chair of Clinical Epidemiology, Liverpool University
• Webcast [Members log in]
  
•   mp3 sound file