Doctor Louise Pryor
Areas of Interest
Science and TechnologyHonorary Award
Honorary Doctor of ScienceCitation
Vice Chancellor, it is my pleasure to read the citation for Dr Louise Pryor, for the award of Honorary Doctor of Science.
Louise Pryor is an academic, actuary, pioneer in modelling the financial and economic impacts of climate change in insurance, and former President of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.
After reading Maths at Newnham College, Cambridge, Louise began her professional life as an actuary. She finished the exams in four years, swore she would never take another exam in her life, then decided that a career in insurance wasn’t for her.
Her next step was to study for a PhD in Computer Science at Northwestern University in the United States, in the field of Artificial Intelligence. This was followed by lectureships in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence at Birmingham and Edinburgh universities.
But Louise soon discovered that academia was no more her lifelong ambition than insurance, so she took her analytical and computing skills and went to work in the tech industry, building new software.
Working for small software companies was fun, but Louise quickly learned that many of them share the annoying habit of running out of money. And after a few years, she tired of chasing new jobs, opting to go freelance and spending the next few years as a software risk consultant.
In 2007, Louise returned to the formal workplace and became Director of Actuarial Standards at the Financial Reporting Council. Under her leadership, the Council succeeded in shifting actuarial regulation in the UK from rules-based to principles-based, and from protecting actuaries to putting the interests of users of actuarial information foremost.
She also went on to lead the development of the first set of technical actuarial standards, delivered by a fully independent standard-setting body, anywhere in the world.
In 2012 Louise’s career changed direction once again, as she turned her attention to the emerging threats around climate risk and sustainability.
She has since been heavily involved in the sustainability activities at the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. She was elected as a Council member, and in 2021 she was appointed President.
Dr Pryor was recently Chair of the London Climate Change Partnership, an organisation working on adaptation to climate change in London.
Today, she is Chair of the Ecology Building Society, whose mission is a fair society in a sustainable world.
She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Honorary Professor in Practice at the Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction. And she leads the Actuaries Carbon Collaboration, which works on issues around carbon emissions and offsets.
After a hugely successful and diverse career, Louise claims that she still doesn’t know what she wants to do when she grows up. Yet one thing is certain – she will continue to look for the next new and interesting thing that will enable her to help make the world a better place.
I’m delighted to say that our university enjoys strong links with Dr Pryor. She supported the Vice Chancellor’s PhD studentship. And I spoke on biodiversity as part of the Thought Leadership webinar set up by Dr Pryor during her time as President of the IFoA.
With a keen focus on sustainability, Dr Pryor is a bold and fierce champion of positive change, and she will be a powerful role model to all our students.
Vice Chancellor, it is my pleasure to present Dr Louise Pryor for the award of Doctor of Science, honoris causa.