IRUA Announces 2017 Scholars Program Winners

October 30th, 2017

The IRUA is pleased to announce the recipients of its 2017 Scholarship Awards.  Twelve essays were received this year and the Scholarship Committee, comprised of representatives from ten member companies, selected the following four authors and papers:

First Place:  Michael Tanner Sowa of the University of Connecticut.  Michael interned at Aspen Re and came in first place for his essay entitled:  “The New Industrial Revolution – Big Data and its Collision with Traditional (Re) Insurance”.

Second Place: Patrick Levandoski of the University of Georgia. Patrick interned at Crum & Forster and received second place for his essay entitled: “Effect of Autonomous Vehicles on Insurance Markets and How to Capitalize”.

Third Place Equally:

Robin Lieb of the State University of New York, Albany.  Robin interned at Arch Re and tied for third place along with Gregory Marzilli  for his essay entitled: “Space Tourism Insurance Isn’t Rocket Science – Is It?”.

Gregory Marzilli of Louisiana State University.  Gregory interned at Aspen US Holdings and tied for third place along with Robin Lieb for his essay entitled: “Unchaining the Insurance Industry: The Impact of Blockchain Technology and Smart Contracts”.

Thanks to the generosity of our members, a total of $17,000 has been disbursed to these awardees.

Congratulations to all four and our thanks to all the other student interns who submitted papers and our member companies for making this the highest award level year in IRUA history.

Over the course of the next 12 months each paper will be published in the Journal of Reinsurance so be sure to read it when it hits your email inbox!

For more information regarding the Scholars Program, please contact Jerry Wallis, IRUA Executive Director, at jwallis@irua.org