Küçükyavuz Elected to INFORMS Leadership Positions
Professor Simge Küçükyavuz will serve as president of the INFORMS Association of Chairs of Operations Research Departments and chair-elect of the INFORMS Optimization Society
This fall, Northwestern Engineering’s Simge Küçükyavuz began terms as the elected president of the INFORMS Association of Chairs of Operations Research Departments (ACORD) and chair-elect of the INFORMS Optimization Society (IOS).
Küçükyavuz, the David A. and Karen Richards Sachs Professor and Chair of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences, began her one-year terms following the 2025 INFORMS Annual Meeting, held Oct. 26-29 in Atlanta.
"I am deeply honored to be elected to these leadership roles,” Küçükyavuz said. “Optimization drives progress in critical areas such as AI, finance, logistics, and infrastructure, and I believe INFORMS is uniquely positioned to elevate the visibility of our field. Having served the community in various capacities over the years, I see this as a wonderful opportunity to advocate for our central role in solving engineering grand challenges and to help shape the future of our discipline.”
As president of ACORD, which facilitates engagement among department chairs and academic directors, Küçükyavuz aims to facilitate high-value dialogue among leaders regarding the evolution of the discipline.
"Specifically, I believe a critical topic for us to address in the coming term is the integration of AI into industrial engineering education, ensuring our curricula remain at the forefront of technological advancement," she said. "As AI reshapes industries, the mathematical foundations provided by operations research are becoming more essential than ever. It is an exciting time to work at the intersection of computer science, data science, engineering, and economics to solve complex societal problems."
Simultaneously, as chair-elect of the IOS, Küçükyavuz plans to strengthen ties between the society and other technical sections through joint sessions and collaborative initiatives. This effort builds on her previous experience launching the Quantum Computing Working Group for the INFORMS Computing Society (ICS).
"I am particularly excited about the convergence of quantum computing and classical optimization, as well as new methodologies at the intersection of AI and operations research,” Küçükyavuz noted. "In my own group, we are working on projects that leverage these tools to address large-scale decision-making problems under uncertainty and problems in causal discovery."
A Northwestern faculty member since 2018 and department chair since 2023, Küçükyavuz is a Fellow of INFORMS recognized for her "outstanding research in mixed-integer optimization and stochastic optimization, as well as distinguished service to, and leadership in, the profession."
Most recently, she delivered a plenary talk on mixed-integer convex optimization for statistical learning at the 18th ICS Conference in March, highlighting her team’s computationally efficient framework for tackling causal discovery problems.
In addition to her new elected roles, Küçükyavuz serves on the editorial boards of Mathematics of Operations Research, Mathematical Programming, Operations Research, SIAM Journal on Optimization, and the MOS-SIAM Book Series on Optimization.