25 November 2025
The Brian Hey Prize 2025 was awarded at IFoA GIRO Conference 2025, celebrating excellence in general insurance research.
This year’s winning paper, Interpretable Boosted GLM, authored by Karol Gawlowski and Yafei (Patricia) Wang, FIA C.Act, impressed the awards committee with its innovative approach to enhancing traditional GLM performance while maintaining clarity and interpretability.
The paper offers practical methodologies that general insurance actuaries can apply in real-world modelling and will be of broad relevance across the profession. The winners receive a £500 prize, a sessional meeting opportunity, and publication in the British Actuarial Journal.
Author Patricia Wang said: “It is a honour to win the Brian Hey Prize. I’m thrilled and hope the paper contributes towards the advancement of machine learning adoption within the actuarial profession. In particular, I hope that our model, the Interpretable Boosted Linear Model, will become the new-generation GLM.”
Two papers were highly commended for their strong contribution to actuarial advancement:
We also extend our thanks to the actuarial community for the exceptionally high number of submissions this year, reflecting growing enthusiasm across general insurance, data science and health fields.
The IFoA congratulates all paper authors and looks forward to continued knowledge-sharing at future general insurance events.
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