Simge Küçükyavuz Named 2023 INFORMS Fellow
Küçükyavuz was recognized for outstanding research and service to the profession
Northwestern Engineering’s Simge Küçükyavuz, industrial engineering department chair and David A. and Karen Richards Sachs Professor of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences, has been named a 2023 fellow of INFORMS, one of the most prestigious honors in the operations research (OR) profession.
The largest association for the decision and data sciences, INFORMS annually recognizes fellows for their outstanding lifetime accomplishments and contributions in OR and analytics.
Küçükyavuz was honored for “outstanding research in mixed-integer optimization and stochastic optimization, as well as distinguished service to, and leadership in, the profession.”
Küçükyavuz’s research has resulted in methodologies with applications in complex computational problems across numerous domains, including social networks, computing and energy infrastructure, statistical learning, and logistics. Her research has been supported by multiple grants from the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research.
Among recent projects, Küçükyavuz is developing computational tools to minimize the spread of misinformation on social media networks and provide digital enterprises with optimal intervention strategies, such as blocking a post or issuing a disclaimer, to quell the spread of misinformation. For another project focused on water distribution networks, such as the reservoirs and pipes delivering water into homes and buildings, she is using US Environmental Protection Agency data to optimize placement of contaminant-detecting sensors to identify abnormalities as quickly as possible to minimize adverse health outcomes.
A Northwestern faculty member since 2018, Küçükyavuz began her term as chair of the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences in September. She currently serves on the editorial boards of Mathematics of Operations Research, Mathematical Programming, SIAM Journal on Optimization, and the MOS-SIAM Optimization Book Series.
Küçükyavuz will be formally inducted as one of 12 members in this year’s class of fellows during the 2023 INFORMS Annual Meeting held October 15-18.