Lars Beute wins Johan de Witt thesis award 2024

The Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) is proud to announce that alumnus Lars Beute has won the Johan de Witt thesis award for his Master’s thesis "Portfolio Allocation under Market Uncertainty: an Application of Multi-Stage Stochastic Mixed-Integer Models". The prize, which is presented annually by the Royal Dutch Actuarial Association (Koninklijk Actuarieel Genootschap, AG), rewards innovative research that contributes to the application of new techniques in and the advancement of actuarial science.

Lars Beute recently obtained his Master’s degree in Econometrics, Operations Research and Actuarial Studies at FEB. His award-winning thesis was supervised by Professor Ward Romeijnders and co-assessed by Assistant Professor Ki Wai Chau and is a valuable contribution to portfolio allocation. By applying stochastic optimalization and advanced ‘solvers’, Beute develops portfolio’s that generate similar returns to the Dow Jones index but are less risky. This makes his work particularly relevant to actuarial practice.

Beute is grateful for the prize and the opportunities and tools his studies at FEB have given him. “The BSc in Econometrics & Operations Research and the MSc in Econometrics, Operations Research, and Actuarial Studies at FEB equipped me with an incredible set of tools to tackle complex financial and actuarial challenges. Applying these concepts in a real-world context for my thesis allowed me to see the practical impact of what we studied, which has been both rewarding and eye-opening. I am certain that this toolset will remain incredibly useful in my future career!"

Enriching the actuarial field

This year, the jury of the Johan de Witt thesis award received seven impressive theses from students from various universities in the Netherlands and Belgium, of which they announced Beute the winner. The diverse topics, from portfolio selection and mortality projections to pension taxation and flood sensitivity, highlight the versatility and relevance of the actuarial profession. The jury appreciates Beute's thesis for the innovative bridge it builds between operations research and actuarial science. According to the jury, his work shows how techniques from other disciplines enrich the actuarial field. Beute received the award, along with a cash prize of € 5000, during the annual fall conference of the Royal Dutch Actuarial Association in Bussum.

Earlier award

In 2022, Beute also received the Maarten van der Vlerk Thesis Prize for his bachelor’s thesis on the effectiveness of mortality models. The Maarten van der Vlerk Thesis Prize is an initiative of FEB with the purpose to reward excellent students who have just finished a high-quality bachelor's or master's thesis in field of Econometrics and Operations Research and Actuarial Studies.