August 2018

Nicholas Hall, Brian Denton, Jeff Cohen

The Ohio State University, University of Michigan, INFORMS

Nicholas G. Hall is a professor in the departments of Management Sciences and Integrated Systems Engineering. He came to Ohio State in 1983 from the University of California-Berkeley. His research interests are in tactical issues within operations management, especially project management, scheduling, supply chain incentives and pricing, and in applications of operations research. He has published over 70 articles in the journals Operations Research,Management Science, Mathematics of Operations Research, Mathematical Programming, Interfaces and several other journals.

Hall has served for a total of over 40 years on the editorial boards of Operations Research and Management Science. He has given over 300 academic presentations, including 89 invited presentations in 20 countries, and seven conference keynote presentations. A 2008 citation study ranked him 13^th among 1,376 scholars in the operations management field. He won the Fisher Pacesetters’ Faculty Research Award in 1998 and 2005. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Sciences of the Peoples’ Republic of China.

Hall has served as president of Manufacturing and Service Operations Management society, and is currently treasurer of INFORMS. He served for five years on the State of Ohio Steel Industry Advisory Council. He has been a visiting professor at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Hall teaches project management, one of the most popular MBA electives at Fisher, a modeling course, and several advanced PhD-level courses. He is the owner of a consulting business, CDOR, which provides business solutions to Ohio business and government communities, as well as advice on intellectual property issues for New York City law firms.

Brian Denton is the Stephen M. Pollock Professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering and the Chair of the Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan. His research interests are in data-driven sequential decision making and optimization under uncertainty with applications to healthcare delivery, public health, medicine, and scheduled systems. He has a cross-appointment in the School of Medicine and he is a member of the Cancer Center and the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation (IHPI) at the University of Michigan.  Before joining the University of Michigan he worked at IBM, Mayo Clinic, and North Carolina State University. His honors and awards include the National Science Foundation Career Award, the INFORMS Service Section Best Paper Prize, the INFORMS Daniel H. Wagner Prize, the Institute of Industrial Engineers Outstanding Publication Award, and the Canadian Operations Research Society Best Paper Award. He served on the Editorial Boards of Health Systems, IIE Transactions, Interfaces, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Medical Decision Making, Operations Research, Optimization in Engineering, and Production and Operations Management. He served as the founding Medical Decision Making Department Editor for IISE Transactions on Healthcare Systems Engineering from 2008-2015. He has co-authored more than 100 journal articles, conference proceedings, book chapters, and patents. He is an elected Fellow of INFORMS, as well as past Chair of the INFORMS Health Applications Section,  Secretary of INFORMS, and President of INFORMS.

Jeff Cohen is an accomplished organizational leader and strategic communication executive, with nearly three decades of rich experience in crafting effective visions and strategies that maximize growth and enhance mindshare and market positions.

As Director of Public Affairs and Marketing for INFORMS, Jeff serves on the senior leadership team for the largest trade association of data science professionals, heading all aspects of the organization’s communication, marketing, and government relations activities.

Over the course of his career, Jeff has held a variety of roles with public relations and public affairs firms, businesses, and trade associations. He has also served as a senior advisor and pollster to numerous federal, state, and local political candidates and committees, as Chief of Staff for a Member of Congress, and as Press Secretary for a U.S. Senator.

Jeff is a first-year PhD student studying Organizational Leadership at Eastern University. He earned his MBA from Johns Hopkins University, an MA from The George Washington University, and his BA from Ithaca College.