The Discovery prize for the best honours project at a South African university
Each participating university submits a research report by an honours student for the purposes of adjudication for this prize. The university generally submits one project, but may submit two if it thinks that either could be awarded the prize. The adjudication is undertaken by an Adjudication Panel comprising the members of the Research Committee.
The prize comprises:
- an unconditional cash payment of R6000; and
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one or more of:
- a scholarship for registration for a masters degree or doctorate at a South African university;
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the author’s costs of attendance at an international conference approved by the Research Committee; and
- the author’s costs of attendance at a convention of the Actuarial Society of South Africa;
subject to a limit of R20 000.
The degree should include a research component constituting at least 25% of the requirements for the degree. The scholarship is subject to completion of the masters degree or doctorate.
The payment for attendance at an international conference or a convention of the Actuarial Society is equal to the expenses incurred by the author in respect of travel, accommodation and conference fees in order to attend.
The scholarship and costs must be claimed within five years of the award being made. However, if circumstances warrant it, the Committee may extend this period at its discretion.
The prize is awarded by the President, or by a Council member on behalf of the President, at the prize-giving ceremony of the university concerned. If the prize is awarded to joint winners, the cash prize and the scholarship are awarded in full to each winner. The award of the prize is announced by the President at the following annual convention.
Recipients
- 2001 – L Johnson, UCT: AIDS: modelling the impact of the epidemic in sub-populations
- 2001 – B Horwitz, Wits: Keeping promises: a contingent claims approach to meeting equity-linked product guarantees
- 2002 – B Shearer, UCT: The impact of HIV/AIDS on South African equities: a qualitative sectoral analysis
- 2003 – N Bhagwan, UCT: Modelling the impact of HIV on tuberculosis
- 2004 – J Seria, UCT: Modelling the future burden of asbestos-related disease in South Africa: a learning tool for the actuarial researcher
- 2005 – N Naidoo, UCT: An analysis of some of the factors affecting African migration out of the former Transkei
- 2005 – K Sinton, Wits: An interrelationship between the funding level and the investment strategy of a defined-benefit pension fund
- 2006 – S Kransdorff, Wits: The pricing of liabilities in an incomplete market: a practical application
- 2006 – A Addae, UCT: The pricing of Asian options
- 2007 – S Diskin, Wits: Current issues in the South African retirement-fund industry
- 2008 – Y Ou, UCT: A comparison between the LIBOR market model and the LIBOR Markov functional model
- 2009 – D Hendricks, UCT: Investigating the use of genetically optimised neural networks to price European call options
- 2010 – M Henderson, UCT: An application of extreme value theory to the South African stock market
- 2011 – J du Plessis, UCT: Quantifying and managing the operational risk component of Solvency II using Bayesian networks
- 2012 – W Lewis and F Xia, UP: Dealing in Junk: Money Makers or Money Takers?