Biography

Awi Federgruen is the Charles E. Exley Professor of Management and Chair of the Decision, Risk, and Operations (DRO) Division of Columbia University's Graduate School of Business, where he served as Senior Vice Dean from 1997-2002. Professor Federgruen also served for many years as the Chair of the DRO Division, most recently from 2004-2010. Professor Federgruen joined the Columbia faculty in 1979 after receiving his doctorate in Operations Research at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and after being a Research Fellow at the Mathematical Centre in Amsterdam and a faculty member at the Graduate School of Management of the University of Rochester. He holds a courtesy appointment in Columbia's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Professor Federgruen is a world renowned expert in the development and implementation of planning models for supply chain management and logistical systems, in particular in the areas of production, inventory and distribution planning for supply chain management, and the design and analysis of operations strategies for service systems. Much of his recent work focuses on competition, coordination and contracting within supply and service chains. He is also a prime contributor to various areas of quantitative methodology, in particular the areas of applied probability and queuing models, as well as the area of dynamic programming. Professor Federgruen is the recipient of the 2004 Distinguished Fellowship Award by the Manufacturing, Service and Operations Management society for Outstanding Research and Scholarship in Operations Management, and was elected a presidential Fellow of the INFORMS society, its highest award. Professor Federgruen is currently the Editor-in-Chief of Naval Research Logistics, and a former Departmental Editor for the department of Manufacturing, Service and Operations of Management Science, Associate Editor of Operations Research, Senior Editor of Manufacturing, Service and Operations Management and Associate Editor of Naval Research Logistics, the flagship journals of his profession. Along with articles in the popular press (Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, etc.), he is the author of over hundred and forty publications in the premier journals of his field, and he has authored a book on Markovian Control problems and numerous book chapters for important survey text books. The recipient of a series of National Science Foundation and ARPA grants, his Ph.D. students are affiliated with some of the most influential university departments and industrial research laboratories (the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the Kellogg School of Northwestern University, the Harvard Business School, Cornell, the Fuqua School of Duke University, the Olin School of Washington University, the Simon School of the University of Rochester, the Business and Engineering Schools of Tel Aviv University, the Business School and Statistics Department of the Hebrew University, IBM, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Merck). In addition to many engagements in the financial services industry, Professor Federgruen frequently consults on various supply chain management problems and planning models for companies in a variety of industries, including the pharmaceutical, natural gas, consumer electronics, food, chemical, newspaper and airline industries, both in the United States and overseas. Much of his recent applied work deals with the development and implementation of marketing mix models and strategies, in particular in the pharmaceutical industry. He has also served as a principal consultant for the Israeli Air Force in the area of logistics and procurement policies.