Supply Chain

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

Georgia Institute of Technology

Beril Toktay is a professor of operations management in Georgia Institute of Technology’s Scheller College of Business. Her research spans from sustainable operations, closed-loop supply chains and supply chain management. She currently teaches Business Strategies in Sustainability in MBA and Executive Education programs. Toktay has written several articles on climate change and advocates for the advancement of women and underrepresented minorities in academia. She holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering and Mathematics from Boğaziçi University, an M.S. in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University, and a Ph.D. in Operations Research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Highlights

• Areas of Expertise: Closed-loop supply chains, Climate change Advancement of women and minorities in academia

University of Alabama

Burcu Keskin is a Reese Phifer Fellow in Operation/Manufacturing Management and Professor of Operations Management in the Culverhouse College of Business at the University of Alabama. She has conducted research in different areas of supply chain management including production and distribution network design, facility location, inventory control, vehicle routing, supply chain optimization related to public safety, healthcare, and manufacturing. Dr. Keskin has offered courses on operations, supply chain logistics, inventory management, and nonlinear and discrete optimization. She received her Ph.D. in industrial engineering from Texas A&M University in 2007.

Dr. Keskin is an active member of INFORMS, is the Treasurer and Vice President of Tuscaloosa Region, INFORMS Deep South Chapter, was elected Secretary and President of the INFORMS Junior Faculty Interest Group from 2008 through 2011 and is currently part of INFORMS Chapters/Fora and INFORMS Education Committees. She has served in the organization committees of 2013 DSI Annual conference in Baltimore, MD; 2012 INFORMS Annual conference in Phoenix, AZ; 2010 INFORMS Southern Regional Conference in Huntsville, AL; and 2008 INFORMS Southwest Regional Conference in College Station, TX. Dr. Keskin is also the faculty advisor of the INFORMS Student Chapter at the University of Alabama. The INFORMS Student Chapter has received the Cum Laude national award in 2009, 2010, and 2011. Due to her involvement with student chapters and fora, Dr. Keskin was a recipient of the INFORMS Judith Liebman Moving Spirit Award in 2007, INFORMS Fora Moving Spirit Award in 2013 and was the Wagner Prize Awardee.

Highlights

• Areas of Expertise: Production and distribution network design, Inventory control, Supply chain optimization related to public safety, healthcare, and manufacturing
• Helped organize four major analytics conferences

University of Richmond

Deniz Besik is an Associate Professor of Management in Robins School of Business at the University of Richmond. Her research studies perishable food supply chains, with a focus on food quality. Dr. Besik received a bachelor's degree in manufacturing systems engineering and a master's degree in industrial engineering from Sabanci University in Turkey. She received her Ph.D. in Management Science from the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She was also selected as one of the recipients of the Honorable Mention Award for the 2019 Bayer Women in Operations Research Scholarship offered by the INFORMS.

Highlights

• Area of Expertise: Food supply chains

Cornell University

Elena Belavina is an associate professor of operations management and information management in the SC Johnson College of Business at Cornell University. She works with startups, established companies and public agencies to study issues of sustainable urban transportation, food waste, grocery retail and supply chains. Her current research focuses on how the environmental impact on grocery shopping online, how pricing polices influence food waste, the design of bike-share systems and supply network design. Prior to working at Cornell, she was an assistant professor in the Operations Management Department in the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. She received her Ph.D. in management from INSEAD and bachelor and master’s degrees in applied mathematics and physics from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.

Highlights

• Areas of Expertise: Sustainable urban transportation, Food waste, Grocery retail, Supply Chain, Bike-share systems design
• Works with startups, companies, and public agencies

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

University of Portland

Min Yu is an Associate Professor of Operations & Technology Management at the University of Portland’s Pamplin School of Business. Her research interests include supply chain networks, risk management and network optimization. She is particularly interested on time-sensitive supply chains in relation to food because in today’s global scenario, timely deliveries of products are as important as money, productivity, quality, and even innovation. She received her Ph.D. in Business Administration with a concentration in Management Science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and an M.E. in Transportation Planning & Management and a Bachelor’s Degree in Transportation Engineering from Tongji University, China.

Highlights

• Areas of Expertise: Supply chain networks, Time-sensitive supply chains in relation to food, Risk management

W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University

Scott Webster is professor and Bob Herberger Arizona Heritage Chair in supply chain management at the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. He previously worked at Syracuse University and University of Wisconsin-Madison, and held visiting positions at Queen’s University in Canada and Zaragoza Logistics Center. Prior to academia, he worked in industry in the areas of consulting and finance. His recent research includes projects on health product and agricultural supply chains, humanitarian disaster relief, pricing and inventory optimization. His research has received best paper awards from INFORMS and the Production and Operations Management Society. At ASU, he teaches courses on business analytics and coordinates the department’s Ph.D. program. His Ph.D. is in operations management and decision sciences from Indiana University.

Highlights

• Areas of Expertise: Agriculture Supply Chains, Healthcare Supply Chains, Disaster Relief, Pricing and Inventory Optimization
• Worked with Biden administration

University of Iowa

Timothy Lowe is a professor at the University of Iowa who studied engineering at Iowa State University prior to obtaining a Ph.D. in operations research from Northwestern University in 1973. Lowe also worked with Syngenta Seeds, Inc., an agricultural firm that produces more than fifty seed-corn hybrids in a given year. To better manage a production-planning process, Lowe’s team developed and implemented a production-planning model to manage the seed-corn supply chain. This project was named a Finalist for the Franz Edelman Prize of INFORMS in 2002. Currently, his operations research focuses on supply chain management, production/operations management, mathematical programming theory and applications, and facility location/design and logistics.

Lowe is a member of the INFORMS Speakers Program and gives talks on introductory operations research, application of the traveling salesman problem in gas turbine engine design, competitive manufacturing, and facilities location. He was elected a Fellow of INFORMS in 2007 and has been the Case & Teaching Materials Awardee and is an Edelman Laureate.

Highlights

• Areas of Expertise: Supply Chain, Agriculture
• Professional speaker
• Worked with Biden administration
• Has worked with Exxon and the U.S. Army