COVID-19

University of Massachusetts Amherst

Anna Nagurney is a Professor in Department of Operations and Information Management in the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherest. She is also an Affiliated Faculty Member of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at UMass Amherest. Her research interests and expertise lies in supply chain network design for critical needs and health care products; perishable product supply chains, including those associated with food, blood, and pharma; disruption management; financial networks with intermediation and much more.

She has received several awards including the Volunteer Service Award at the Distinguished Level from INFORMS at the INFORMS Annual Meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, November 13-16, 2016. Professor Nagurney is a participant in the INFORMS Speaker Program and from 2011-2012 was the Chair of the INFORMS Speaker Program. She has also been the Faculty Advisor to the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter since 2004. In 2007, 2009, and 2015, the chapter received the INFORMS Student Chapter Annual Award Summa Cum Laude award. In 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2020 the chapter was recognized for its activities with the INFORMS Student Chapter Annual Award Magna Cum Laude. Lastly, in 2014, 2016, and 2018, the chapter received the Cum Laude Award.

Highlights

• Areas of Expertise: Transportation and logistics network systems, Perishable product supply chains, Distruption management
• Professional speaker

UCLA

Chris Tang is the Edward W. Carter chair in business administration in the Anderson School of Management at UCLA. Tang’s research focuses on global supply chain management. His work began in the private sector when he worked for IBM. His work helped solve internal production planning problems. His research addresses concerns such as microfinancing for the poor, mobile platforms for developing economies, creating shared values and direct procurement of agricultural products, response management in disasters and new business models in the age of the Internet. He was elected an INFORMS fellow in 2011.

Highlights

• Areas of Expertise: Global supply chain management, Microfinancing for the poor, Disaster response management, New business models in the age of the Internet
• Works with IBM on internal production planning

North Carolina State University

Julie Swann is the department head and A. Doug Allison Distinguished Professor of the Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. She is an affiliate faculty in the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at both NC State and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Before joining NC State, Swann was the Harold R. and Mary Anne Nash Professor in the Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. There she co-founded and co-directed the Center for Health and Humanitarian Systems (CHHS), one of the first interdisciplinary research centers on the Georgia Tech campus. Starting with her work with CHHS, Swann has conducted research, outreach, and education to improve how health and humanitarian systems operate worldwide.

Swann is a Fellow of IISE and a member of INFORMS as well as a research leader in using analytics and system approaches to enable health care and supply chains to become more efficient, effective, or equitable. Her work as a systems engineer with analytics skills relates to areas of public health, public policy, epidemiology, infectious disease, supply chain management, and disaster response.

Highlights

• Areas of Expertise: Planning for infectious disease outbreaks, Medicaid administrative claims, Supply chain management, Disaster response
• Worked with CDC during the H1N1 pandemic

Pinar Keskinocak is the William W. George Chair and Professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech. She is also co-founder and director of the Center for Health and Humanitarian Systems. Previously, she served as the College of Engineering ADVANCE Professor and as interim associate dean for faculty development and scholarship. She received her Ph.D. in Operations Research from Carnegie Mellon University, and her M.S. and B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Bilkent University. Keskinocak's research focuses on health and humanitarian applications, supply chain management, and logistics/transportation. Her recent work has addressed infectious disease modeling, evaluating intervention strategies, and resource allocation, catch-up scheduling for vaccinations, hospital operations management, and disaster preparedness and response.

She is an INFORMS Fellow and she served as the Secretary of INFORMS, President of INFORMS, department editor for Operations Research, associate editor for Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, and INFORMS Vice President of Membership and Professional Recognition. She is the co-founder and past-president of INFORMS Section on Public Programs, Service, and Needs.

Highlights

• Areas of Expertise: Infectious disease modeling, Intervention strategy evaluation, Hospital operations management, Disaster preparedness and response
• Worked with the American Red Cross and the CDC
• Served on editorial board of two science journals

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Richard Larson is a professor of data, systems, and society at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Currently Prof. Larson is principal investigator of the MIT BLOSSOMS Initiative. He continues to be actively engaged in research, especially on how operations research can provide insights in the monitoring and control of Covid-19. Furthermore, his other research focuses on urban service systems, disaster planning, pandemics, queueing, logistics, technology-enabled education, smart-energy houses, and workforce planning. He served as president of INFORMS and is an INFORMS Founding Fellow.

Highlights

• Areas of Expertise, Urban service systems, Disaster planning, Technology-enabled education, Smart-energy houses, Workforce planning
• Principle investigator of MIT BLOSSOMS Initiative

Oklahoma State University

Sunderesh S. Heragu is the Head and Donald and Cathey Humphreys Chair of the School of Industrial Engineering and Management at Oklahoma State University. Previously he was Professor, Duthie Chair in Engineering Logistics and Director of the Logistics and Distribution Institute (LoDI) at the University of Louisville. He has developed deterministic as well as stochastic models for important design and operational problems arising in logistics and distribution, healthcare logistics, emergency preparedness, applied operations research, warehousing, material handling, facilities design.

Highlights

• Areas of Expertise: Healthcare logistics, Emergency preparedness, Warehousing

Johns Hopkins University

Tinglong Dai is a professor in the Carey Business School at Johns Hopkins University. His research interests span across healthcare, marketing-operations interfaces, and human-AI interaction. He can speak to supply chain angles to the COVID pandemic as far as resource allocation, food supply, vaccine allocation and creation among other things.

Dai has an M.Phil in Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management from Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, a M.S. in Industrial Administration and a Ph.D. in Operations Management/Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University. Dai's work has been published in leading journals such INFORMS Journal on Computing and has been recognized by INFORMS Public Sector Operations Research Best Paper Award.  

Highlights

• Areas of Expertise: Healthcare, Marketing-operations interfaces, Human-AI interaction
• Can speak to COVID-19 and supply chains with food supply, vaccine allocation, and resource allocation