Ozlem Ergun
COE Distinguished Professor and Associate Chair for Graduate Affairs,
Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Affiliated Faculty,
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Affiliated Faculty,
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Affiliated Faculty,
Global Resilience Institute
Office
- 334H SN
- 617.373.6254
Research Focus
Network optimization, logistics and transportation, resilient supply chain and infrastructure systems design and operations, health, humanitarian, and emergency response systems, digital platforms
About
Dr. Özlem Ergun is a College of Engineering Distinguished Professor and Associate Chair for Graduate Studies in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at Northeastern University. Dr. Ergun’s research focuses on design and management of large-scale and decentralized networks. She has applied her work on network design, management, and resilience to problems arising in many critical systems including transportation, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare. She has worked with organizations that respond to emergencies and humanitarian crises around the world, including USAID, UN WFP, UNHCR, IFRC, OXFAM America, CARE USA, FEMA, USACE, CDC, AFCEMA, and MedShare International. Recently, Dr. Ergun partnered with the Massachusetts’ Executive Office of Elder Affairs (EOEA) to help match qualified medical professionals to Long Term Care facilities with open positions around the state as part of the state’s response efforts to COVID-19. Dr. Ergun also served as a member of the National Academies Committee on Building Adaptable and Resilient Supply Chains after Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria and the National Academies Committee on Security of America’s Medical Supply Chain. She was the President of INFORMS Section on Public Programs, Service and Needs in 2013 and is an INFORMS fellow. She served as the Area Editor at the Operations Research journal for Policy Modeling Public Sector Area and currently serves as the Department co-Editor at MSOM journal for the Environment, Health and Society Department. She is also the founder of Verioptum.
Education
- Ph. D., Operations Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, MA, June 2001
- B. S., Operations Research and Industrial Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, January 1996
Honors & Awards
- 2023 INFORMS Fellow
- 2021 Franz Edelman Laureate
- Winner, EURO/INFORMS 2007 Management Science Strategic Innovation Prize given on the subject of Logistics with “Designing mechanisms for the management of carrier alliances”, 2007.
- Most Cited Paper Award, Signal Processing: Image Communication given to the most cited paper published between the years 2005-2007 with A multi-path selection for multiple description video streaming over overlay networks.”
- NSF CAREER award, 2003
Professional Affiliations
- INFORMS
- Mathematical Programming Society
Research Overview
Network optimization, logistics and transportation, resilient supply chain and infrastructure systems design and operations, health, humanitarian, and emergency response systems, digital platforms
Selected Research Projects
- Platforms for Exchange and Allocation of Resources (PEAR)
- – Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
- Designing an Improved Information Infrastructure for Better Decision Making in Pharmaceutical Supply Chains
- – co-Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
- Food Aid Quality Review Phase III Program
- – Principal Investigator, subcontract from Tufts University’s USAID grant
- Future of Work: Understanding the Algorithmic Workplace: A Multi-Method Study for Comprehensive Optimization of Platforms
- – Co-Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
- Optimizing Routing for Same Day Delivery Operations with Crowdsourced Drivers
- – Principal Investigator, Deliv.com
- RAPID: Rapid Monitoring and Assessment of Critical Pharmaceutical Supply Chains
- – Co-Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
Research Centers and Institutes
Department Research Areas
Selected Publications
- Nutchanon Yongsatianchot, Noah Chicoine, Jacqueline Griffin, Ozlem Ergun, and Stacy Marsella. 2023. Agent-Based Modeling of Human Decision-makers Under Uncertain Information During Supply Chain Shortages. In Proceedings of the 2023 International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS ’23). International Foundation for Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, Richland, SC, 1886–1894.
- R. Doroudi, P. Sequeira, S. Marsella, Ö. Ergun, R. Azghandi, D. Kaeli, et al., Effects 0f Trust-Based Decision Making in Disrupted Supply Chains, PLoS ONE 15(2), 2020, e0224761
- J. Featherstone, Ö. Ergun, K. Fulton, W. Hopp, P. Keskinocak, B. Koon, A. Lippert, C. Philip, K. Smith, S. Mannan, Strengthening Post-Hurricane Supply Chain Resilience: Observations from Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, The National Academies Press, 2020
- L. Gui, A. Atasu, Ö. Ergun, B. Toktay, Design Incentives under Collective Extended Producer Responsibility: A Network Perspective, Management Science, 64(11), 2018, 4967-5460
- A. Ulusan, Ö. Ergun, Restoration of Services in Disrupted Infrastructure Systems: A Network Science Approach, PLOS ONE, 13(2), 2018, e0192272