Prof. Les³aw Gajek of the Technical University of £ód¼ is Poland's first recipient of the David Garrick Halmstad Prize, an award that is given out annually by the U.S.-based Actuarial Foundation (TAF) for "significant contributions to actuarial science." Gajek received the award for a work entitled Reinsurance Arrangements Maximizing Insurer's Survival Probability that he has published together with Prof. Dariusz Zagrodny of the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw.

The award is granted annually by the Board of Trustees and the Actuarial Education and Research Fund (AERF) Committee of the Actuarial Foundation (TAF) for the best paper on actuarial research published each year. Few European scientists have received the prize since it was established 30 years ago.

Gajek is a lecturer at the Institute of Mathematics of the Technical University of £ód¼, and a member of the institute's council. An expert in actuarial sciences, he deals mainly with financial risk. He is a renowned expert in pension plans. When he was a minister in Jerzy Buzek's government (1997-2001), he headed Poland's Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) for two years, reorganizing its operations. He enjoys a lot of respect among academics dealing with mathematics of finance, especially actuarial science and insurance. He has published his papers in many Polish and international magazines and has co-written a book entitled Financial Risk Management of Pension Plans, together with Prof. Krzysztof Ostaszewski of Illinois State University. The book was published by Elsevier science publishers.

Gajek publishes his books and papers under the logo of the Technical University of £ód¼, which has won recognition around the world in recent years for its achievements in technical as well as financial and economic sciences. Thanks to its high teaching standards, the school has established cooperation with Illinois State University.