Karen Renee Smilowitz is an American transportation scientist and

operations research Operations research () (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often shortened to the initialism OR, is a branch of applied mathematics that deals with the development and application of analytical methods to improve management and ...

er whose research concerns humanitarian

logistics Logistics is the part of supply chain management that deals with the efficient forward and reverse flow of goods, services, and related information from the point of origin to the Consumption (economics), point of consumption according to the ...

, including

vehicle routing The vehicle routing problem (VRP) is a combinatorial optimization and integer programming problem which asks "What is the optimal set of routes for a fleet of vehicles to traverse in order to deliver to a given set of customers?" It generalises ...

for

disaster relief Emergency management (also Disaster management) is a science and a system charged with creating the framework within which communities reduce vulnerability to hazards and cope with disasters. Emergency management, despite its name, does not actu ...

efforts, as well as safety and emergency preparedness for large public events such as

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of kilometres ( 26 mi 385 yd), usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There ...

s. She is James N. and Margie M. Krebs Professor in Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences at

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

, and editor-in-chief of the journal ''

Transportation Science ''Transportation Science'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal published by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). The studies published in the journal apply operations research techniques to proble ...

''.

Education and career

Smilowitz majored in

civil engineering Civil engineering is a regulation and licensure in engineering, professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads ...

and operations research at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

, graduating in 1995. She went to the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

for graduate study in civil and environmental engineering, specializing in transportation, earning a master's degree in 1998 and completing her Ph.D. in 2001. Her dissertation, ''Design and operation of multimode, multi-service logistics systems'', was supervised by Carlos F. Daganzo. She has been a faculty member in industrial engineering and management sciences at Northwestern University since 2001. She became a full professor in 2015, was named Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence in 2015 and Krebs Professor in 2018, and added an affiliation with the

Kellogg School of Management The Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management (branded as Northwestern Kellogg) is the graduate business school of Northwestern University, a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois. History Early ...

in 2019. As well as serving as editor-in-chief of ''

'', she has been president of the INFORMS Transportation Science & Logistics Society, for a three-year term from 2015 to 2018.

Recognition

Smilowitz was the 2016 winner of the WORMS Award for the Advancement of Women in OR/MS of the

Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) is an international society for practitioners in the fields of operations research Operations research () (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often s ...

(INFORMS). In 2022 she was named a Fellow of INFORMS, "for outstanding research in transportation, logistics and nonprofit operations, significant contributions to the practice of OR for social good and advancing equity and diversity".

References

External links

Home page
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Smilowitz, Karen Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American civil engineers American women engineers American operations researchers Princeton University alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni Northwestern University faculty Fellows of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences