Professor Robert W Batten, MA, FSA, retired in 1997 as Professor of Actuarial Science and Director of the Actuarial Science Program at Georgia State University (GSU). He received an M.A. in mathematics from Duke University in 1964, and he became a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries in 1969. He is a past president of the Southeastern Actuaries Club and the Atlanta Actuarial Club.
Professor Batten was responsible for the overall actuarial science program at GSU for over 25 years, having joined the faculty as an assistant professor in 1966. He was selected Outstanding Teacher in the College of Business Administration at Georgia State (more than 200 full-time faculty members) twice prior to his retirement in 1997. A $1 million Chair in Actuarial Science was established at GSU upon his retirement, named the Robert W. Batten Chair in Actuarial Science.
Professor Batten was the director and lead instructor for the on-campus actuarial science seminar program at GSU. He has taught thousands of students preparing for CAS and SOA examinations on actuarial mathematics, interest theory, and other subjects, for GSU, NEAS, and other organizations.
Professor Batten's textbook, Mortality Table Construction (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1977), was required reading on the SOA syllabus for over a decade. In 1990, he published a study manual to assist students preparing for the SOA Course 150 examination: Life Contingencies: A Guide for the Actuarial Student (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1990). In 1997, the second edition of the manual was published, incorporating the revised content of Actuarial Mathematics. (Winsted, CT: Actex Publications, 1997). His current study manual for the Exam 3 syllabus, A Guide for the Actuarial Student: Life Contingencies and Ruin Theory, jointly written with Dick London, is published by ACTEX publications.
In addition to having served on committees of the Society of Actuaries and other actuarial organizations, Professor Batten was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Teachers Retirement System of the State of Georgia and was a member of its Investments Committee.