Mélina Mailhot is the new interim Regional Director of CANSSI Quebec, beginning immediately.
Mélina is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Concordia University. She joined the department after completing her PhD at Laval University in 2012 and teaches courses covering mathematics of finance, loss models, investment mathematics, risk theory, and risk measures.
She lists actuarial science, risk theory, dependence modelling, risk measures, and optimization among her research interests and states that her research focuses on the development and analysis of multivariate dependence structures and measures. Risks considered are related to insurable property and casualty perils.
An Early Relationship with CANSSI Quebec
Mélina was first introduced to CANSSI when she collaborated with former Regional Director (and colleague) Yogendra Chaubey in organizing the launch of CANSSI Quebec, hosted at Concordia University, in November 2019. Several years later, she was awarded a CANSSI Collaborative Research Teams (CRT) grant.
Those connections led to her new role.
“When I was asked to act as interim director for CANSSI Quebec, what convinced me was the shared vision of wanting to offer additional support to the actuarial and statistical communities, and to preserve and hopefully increase the dynamic research environment we have in Quebec,” said Mélina.
“I have always been a team player, and acting as interim director will be a nice challenge for me as we already know several groups of researchers in actuarial science and statistics.”
She is looking forward to building on what already exists in the province.
“The objective is clear in that we want the community to have more, without overlapping on all the other great initiatives in Québec.”
Welcome, Mélina!
About CANSSI’s Regional Directors
In addition to its national headquarters at Simon Fraser University, CANSSI has five Regional Centres hosted at universities across Canada: CANSSI Atlantic (Dalhousie University), CANSSI Quebec (Concordia University), CANSSI Ontario (University of Toronto), CANSSI Prairies (University of Manitoba), and CANSSI Rockies (currently being organized).
Each Regional Centre has a Regional Director (RD) who serves advisory and operational roles related to CANSSI programs and activities in their region as well as seeking regional support and building relationships between CANSSI and regional research enterprises. Each RD also pursues the institutional goals of their host university.
A Committee of Regional Directors advises the Director and Deputy Director on deployment of national resources at a regional level, modifications of national programs for regional characteristics and needs, and possible partnerships and funding opportunities of a regional nature.
Regional Directors are also part of CANSSI’s primary management and administrative group, together with the Director, Deputy Director, and Associate Directors. They provide feedback on all aspects of CANSSI operations, help steer CANSSI developments, and adjudicate the smaller budget programs as well as the CANSSI Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowships program.
