INFORMS Career FAQ: Amir Sadrian

If you pick up the phone today, you may be benefiting from Amir Sadrian's OR expertise without even knowing it.

Sadrian, who heads the Robust Networks and Operations Group of Bellcore, provides decision support services for the seven regional Bell companies from coast to coast. And the projects he directs impact millions of customers every day.

When your call goes through the first time instead of getting disconnected, it may be because of the intricate systems of switches, trunk lines, and loops Sadrian's group has fine-tuned to reduce the probability of failure - or because of the alternatives they've devised to reroute your call in seconds when trouble does occur.

When you report a problem and the repair person arrives in minutes instead of hours, it's probably thanks to the dispatching algorithms they've developed to get the nearest qualified technician to you as soon as possible...instead of sending somone from clear across town.

And in a few years you may be able to get movies over your phone lines. Watch one part of a ball game while your neighbor watches another. Or call in and pick up urgent e-mail messages from a voice synthesizer - all with the help of other new technologies being assessed now.

Sadrian became interested in operations research in high school and, after a college course in linear programming, decided to make it his life's work and went on to earn two M.S. degrees and a Ph.D.

Today, after almost two decades in the field, he's worked on everything from estimating the cost of expansions to evaluating a technology that lets the phone company disconnect and reconnect service without physically "cutting the wires."

The PDSS procurement system he developed has saved the companies he serves hundreds of millions of dollars. And his efforts mean clear connections...better customer service...and lower rates when you open your monthly bill.