The PhD program in “School of Statistical Sciences”, established in 2012, is structured into three curricula:
“Demography”, “Actuarial Sciences”, and “Methodological Statistics”.
It trains high-level professionals for roles requiring expertise in “information management” in its broadest sense, across all stages (production and analysis), for placement within universities, research institutions, and public or private research departments, both in Italy and abroad.
The program originated from the merger of three PhD programs (Demography, Actuarial Sciences, and Methodological Statistics) united by a shared commitment to a quantitative approach to research. The current training path maintains these disciplinary roots through preparation grounded in solid statistical and mathematical-probabilistic skills, integrated with specific theoretical and applied contexts in the demographic and actuarial fields, within a highly interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary framework.
The primary objective of the three-year program is the initiation into research. This is achieved by identifying a concrete, relevant, and open problem which, developed by the PhD student under the supervision of internal and/or external faculty members, leads to original results and the drafting of the doctoral thesis.
• DEMOGRAPHY Curriculum
This curriculum develops specific expertise in the study of population processes, focusing on population dynamics and their interrelations with economic and social behaviors. The potential of this field is closely linked to the analysis of critical phenomena affecting a country’s balance, such as demographic aging, immigration, health, and longevity.
Phenomena such as foreign immigration, population aging, the evolution of family structures and cohabitation, health conditions, survival and longevity, and the relationship between population and environment all have a decisive impact on social and economic stability. At both the micro level (individuals and families) and the macro level (populations), demography tackles problems that require a multidisciplinary vision capable of combining diverse analytical approaches and tools.
The training activities of the Demography curriculum are organized to enhance this multidisciplinary perspective while maintaining a solid methodological foundation.
Furthermore, the Demography curriculum benefits from an agreement with the European Doctoral School of Demography (EDSD). First-year PhD students actively participate in all training activities organized by the school.
• ACTUARIAL SCIENCES Curriculum
The objective of this curriculum is to train researchers with high-level scientific qualifications in the field of Actuarial Sciences.
Study and research activities are strictly focused on: actuarial models for private insurance (life and non-life), actuarial models for social security and pensions (public and supplementary), risk theory, reinsurance, solvency, economics of risk and insurance, and mathematical finance.
This program represents an excellence within the national academic landscape, as it is currently the only PhD program in Italy specifically dedicated to advanced research in actuarial sciences, with a core focus on insurance models, social security, and risk theory.
The educational goals are achieved through fundamental courses in: Stochastic processes, Risk theory, Financial econometrics, Statistical methods for insurance and finance, Monte Carlo methods for insurance and finance. These are complemented by in-depth thematic sessions dedicated to topics of particular current interest and relevance.
• METHODOLOGICAL STATISTICS Curriculum
This curriculum trains expert researchers in the development of original statistical methodologies, meeting the demand for highly specialized skills across all areas of the statistical information management process. This includes the "production, dissemination, and analysis of data," as well as the design of surveys and experiments, and the development and implementation of new methodologies.
Training is provided through advanced courses in: Probability and Stochastic processes, Multivariate statistics and Statistical modeling, Statistical decision theory, Computational statistics, Survival analysis and Inference, Spatial statistics, Applied statistics laboratories.
In-depth thematic studies are further developed through monographic courses dedicated to specific topics of current interest and cutting-edge relevance.
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Throughout the three-year program, all PhD students play an active role in the scientific initiatives of the Department of Statistical Sciences. These include seminars, study days, research group meetings, workshops, and conferences at both national and international levels.
Furthermore, based on their specific research interests, students are integrated into various funded research programs active within the Department at the University, national, and international levels.
Mobility and Doctor Europeus
PhD students from all curricula are strongly encouraged to spend study periods abroad at prestigious universities and research centers with which fruitful and stable exchange relationships have been established over the years. Recent host institutions include: ETH di Zurigo, Università di Copenaghen, Cass Business School di Londra, e Università di Losanna, University of California (UCLA), University of Glasgow, Harvard University, Novartis (Switzerland), Bielefeld University (Germania), Imperial College (UK), Università di Valladolid (Spagna) Trinity College (Irlanda), INED - Institut national d'études démographiques (Francia), Universidad de Zaragoza (Spagna), Koç University (Turchia), Stockholm University (Svezia), Universidad de Alcalá (Spagna), EORTC-European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (Belgio).
Research mobility in European institutions for periods of at least three months is an essential requirement for obtaining the additional “Doctor Europaeus” certification.
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