Arjang A. Assad

Academics — 02 May 2011

Arjang A. Assad was named dean of the University at Buffalo School of Management on August 1, 2008. His previous position was professor of management science and Dean’s Professor for Extraordinary Service in the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, where he had been a faculty member since 1978.

In addition, he held several key administrative positions in the school, serving as chair of the Department of Decision, Operations and Information Technologies from 1998-2003 and as senior associate dean from 2004-07.

While at Maryland, Assad was an advocate of and leader in innovative educational initiatives. He directed the IBM Total Quality Project (QUEST), a joint business and engineering program focusing on teamwork and quality management on campus, and was actively engaged in enhancing the university’s honors program. His work with students at Maryland received the Kirwan Undergraduate Education Award in 2002, the highest honor given for contributions to undergraduate education at the university, along with several other teaching awards. His numerous service roles include serving as a champion and the founding chair of the Academy for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, a community of scholars committed to fostering a culture of excellence in teaching and learning at Maryland that he helped to create.

Research

His research interests include operations and quality management, optimization of distribution systems, mathematical programming and the history of operations research. He has authored or edited a number of books, as well as more than 50 refereed articles and book chapters. His most recent book, “Profiles in Operations Research,” co-authored with Saul I. Gass, is scheduled for publication in summer 2009.

He has been a member of the editorial boards of several prestigious scholarly journals, including Operations Research, Transportation Science, and Production and Operations Management.

Consulting

Assad has worked on a variety of distribution and manufacturing problems as a consultant for major U.S. corporations, including Mid-Atlantic Toyota, Forster Mfg, DuPont, UPS, Federal Express, IBM and the Orkand Corporation. As a consultant, he has also analyzed operational issues for the Federal Aviation Administration, the Bureau of the Census, the U.S. Postal Service, the U.S. Army, the U.S. departments of Transportation and Energy, and the Red Cross.

Education

PhD, Management Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MS, Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MS, Operations Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
BS, Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology