Program Director Jim Daniel

Director of Actuarial Studies
Dr. James W. Daniel, A.S.A.

UT-Austin Distinguished Teaching Professor,
and
The Paul V. Montgomery
Centennial Memorial Professor
of Actuarial Mathematics



Mailing address:
Mathematics Department, C1200
The University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station
Austin, TX 78712-0257

Physical location:
RLM 11.174
11th floor, R. L. Moore Building, southeast corner of Speedway and Dean Keeton Street (formerly 26th Street)

Office hours:
MTWTh 9-11 during the fall and spring semesters, or make an appointment, or just drop in and take your chances

Contacts:
512/471-7168
FAX 512/471-9038
e-mail as daniel@math.utexas.edu

Classes:
 Background:
Jim Daniel became Director of Actuarial Studies when the program moved to the Mathematics Department from the Finance Department in 1989. Although his main activity is now undergraduate teaching, he previously was very active in research (primarily in numerical optimization and the numerical solution of ordinary differential equations) and in academic administration (former UT-Austin Faculty Senate Chair, former Mathematics Department Chair).

"I attended a tiny, men-only, liberal arts college (600 total students in my day!) where the faculty's emphasis was on working with students. I try now to make the Actuarial Studies Program have some of the feel that I experienced in college, despite the size of The University. My wife Ann and I take great pleasure in getting to know the students and watching them mature, find jobs, and develop their careers and lives."

In Spring 2005, he was named to UT-Austin's Academy of Distinguished Teachers.


 

By popular demand of my students, here's a big version of the above duck picture.


Brief Résumé


  • Education

    • B.A.: Wabash College, 1962, mathematics & economics
    • M.S.: Stanford University, 1963, mathematics
    • Ph.D.: Stanford University, 1965, mathematics
    • D.Sc. (Honorary): Wabash College, 1987
    • Associate of the Society of Actuaries (A.S.A.), 1991

  • Employment

    • Paul V. Montgomery Professor of Actuarial Mathematics, and Director of Actuarial Studies, University of Texas at Austin, 1989-present
    • Tenured Associate Professor and then Professor of Mathematics & Education & Computer Sciences, Mathematics Department Chair for 6 years, University of Texas at Austin, various periods in 1970-present
    • Chief Scientist (basic research) in Europe & Middle East for U.S. Navy, London, 1983-85
    • Assistant Professor then tenured Associate Professor of Computer Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1967-70

  • Professional activities

    • Member, Society of Actuaries, and Actuaries Club of the Southwest
    • Correspondent, Casualty Actuarial Society
    • Founder and leader of international organization of actuarial educators
    • Author of three college textbooks (one on Mathematical Interest Theory for actuarial students) and two research books
    • Author of 47 research papers and 34 expository papers
    • Chair of committees supervising three journals and seven book series of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), 1993-1998, 2007–2008
    • Member, Executive Committee of the MAA Board of Governors, 2000-2008
    • Editor of series of mathematics books for general audiences, 1986-1989
    • Vice-president, international applied-mathematics society (SIAM), 1986-90
    • Consultant to government and industry
    • Teacher of intensive seminars for student actuaries preparing for Exams MLC/3L and C/4
    • Menber of the joint SoA/CAS Task Force that drafted the new preliminary education system that went into effect in May 2005
    • Chair of the SoA team that drafted the detailed syllabus for the new Exam M first given in May 2005