University
Operations Research Expert to Join USC Viterbi
- Dorit Simona Hochbaum
By Eric Mankin on October 21, 2009 8:14 AM
A scholar with operations research interests who has contributed to algorithm design and optimization is the first recipient of the Epstein Family Chair in the Daniel Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.
Dorit Simona Hochbaum will come to USC from the Haas School of Business and the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research at the University of California, Berkeley.
“It is not often anyone gets their first choice when trying to recruit the very best faculty members, but on this occasion the Epstein faculty got exactly what we wished for,” said James E. Moore, chair of the Daniel Epstein department.
Moore noted that Hochbaum’s expertise would be “a natural fit” for his department and USC Viterbi initiatives in health systems and the university’s Department of Homeland Security research agendas.
Hochbaum’s research interests include the areas of supply chain management, efficient utilization of resources, computer algorithms and discrete optimization. She has worked on the movement of robots; routing and distribution problems; distribution of databases on computer networks; and pattern recognition problems.
Her recent work focuses on efficient techniques for network flow-related problems, with applications varying from medical prognosis and financial risk assessment to group rankings.
Hochbaum is known for her work in optimization - proving that a solution is not just good, but the best possible. “I try to be an optimizer in whatever I do,” she writes on her home page, including “baking cakes optimally.”
In 2004, she received the title of doctor honoris causa in sciences by the University of Copenhagen for her contributions to approximation algorithms. In 2005, she was named a fellow of the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science.
Prior to joining UC Berkeley in 1981, Hochbaum held a faculty position at Carnegie Mellon University’s Graduate School of Industrial Administration, now the Tepper School of Business. She earned a Ph.D from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
TAGS: research
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