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Max Shen

IEOR

Zuo-Jun (Max) Shen

Professor Emeritus

Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

With research interests in logistics and supply chain management, data-driven decision making, and system optimization, Professor Shen’s research programs cut through businesses, energy systems, transportation systems, smart cities, healthcare management, and environmental protection. He has worked closely with industries and has a strong track record of securing major research grants from government agencies and private sectors, such as the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, Department of Transportation, Caltrans, IBM, GM, Safeway, HP, Bayer, Siemens, Alibaba, JD.com, and various other industrial companies and funding agencies. The total funding amount exceeds 10 million dollars. He has graduated 42 PhD students; more than half are faculty members in leading universities, and the rest work in major technological companies globally.

Internationally recognized as a top scholar, Professor Shen published 3 books, 10 book chapters, and over 230 papers. He is a Fellow of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), a Fellow and past President of the Production and Operations Management Society (POMS), a Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences, and a past President of the Society of Locational Analysis of INFORMS.

Research Areas

  • Integrated Supply Chain Design and Management
  • Data Driven Logistics and Supply Chain Optimization
  • Design and Analysis of Optimization Algorithms
  • Energy Systems Optimization
  • Transportation System Planning

Selected Projects

Professional Activities and Awards

  • Associate editor for Operations Research
  • Associate editor for Management Science
  • Associate editor for Manufacturing & Service Operations Management
  • Associate editor for Naval Research Logistics
  • Associate editor for IIE Transactions
  • Department editor for Production and Operations Management
  • CAREER Award from NSF (2003)
  • The Inaugural Chuck ReVelle Rising Star Award, SOLA, INFORMS (2008)
  • IISE/Joint Publishers Book-of-the-Year Award (2013)
  • Runner-up, INFORMS Health Application Society Best Paper Award (2016)
  • Franz Edelman Laureate (2018)
  • INFORMS Fellow (2018)
  • M&SOM Best Paper Award (2019)
  • POMS-JD.com Best Data-Driven Research Paper Award (2019)
  • INFORMS TSL Best Paper Award (2019)
  • Finalist, MSOM Data Driven Challenge (2020)
  • Finalist, MSOM Data Driven Challenge (2021)
  • Semifinalist, Gartner Power of the Profession Supply Chain Award (2022)
  • POMS Fellow (2022)
  • Fellow, Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences (2022)
  • Finalist, M&SOM Practice-based Research Competition (2023)
  • Finalist, INFORMS Data Mining Best Paper Award (2023)
  • Franz Edelman Laureate (2023)
  • Gartner Power of the Profession Supply Chain Award (2024)
  • INFORMS Prize (2024)
  • Distinguished Alumni Award, Northwestern University, Industrial Engineering & Management Sciences (2024)
  • Wagner Prize (2024)

Journal Publications

Google Scholar Profile

Books and Book Chapters

  • Supply Chain Modeling and Optimization, co-authored with Larry Snyder and Karen Smilowitz, Dynamic Ideas. 2024.
  • Fundamentals of Supply Chain Theory, co-authored with Larry Snyder, Wiley. First edition 2011. Second edition 2019.
  • Integrated Modeling for Location Analysis, co-authored with Ho-Yin Mak, Foundations and Trends in Technology, Information and Operations Management. 2016.
  • Handbook of Supply Chain Analysis in the E-Business Era, co-edited with David Simchi-Levi and David Wu, Springer. 2004.
  • Wang, M. & Shen, Z. J. M. (2023). Online retailing inventory management. Research Handbook on Inventory Management (pp. 500-523). Edward Elgar Publishing.
  • Huang, Y. & Shen, Z. J. M. (2022). Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic Management Policies on Public Transportation Systems. In Pandemic in the Metropolis: Transportation Impacts and Recovery (pp. 253-266). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
  • Mak, H. Y., & Shen, Z. J. M. (2010). Integrated supply chain design models. Wiley Encyclopedia of Operations Research and Management Science.
  • Geunes, J., Akçali, E., Pardalos, P. M., Romeijn, H. E., & Shen, Z. J. M. (Eds.). (2006). Applications of supply chain management and e-commerce research (Vol. 92). Springer Science & Business Media.
  • Su, S. Y., Lam, H., Lodha, R., Bai, S., & Shen, Z. J. M. (2005). Collaboration technologies for supporting e-supply chain management. Applications of Supply Chain Management and E-Commerce Research, 299-322.
  • Agarwal, R., Ahuja, R. K., Laporte, G., & Shen, Z. J. M. (2004). A composite very-large-scale neighborhood search algorithm for the vehicle routing problem. Handbook of Scheduling: Algorithms, Models, and Performance Analysis.
  • Snyder, L. V., & Shen, Z. J. M. (2007, February). Managing disruptions to supply chains. In Frontiers of Engineering: Reports on Leading-Edge Engineering from the 2006 Symposium (Vol. 139). National Academies Press.
  • Chan, L. M., Shen, Z. M., Simchi-Levi, D., & Swann, J. L. (2004). Coordination of pricing and inventory decisions: A survey and classification. Handbook of quantitative supply chain analysis: Modeling in the e-business era, 335-392.
  • Simchi-Levi, D., Wu, S. D., & Shen, Z. M. (2004). Auctions and pricing in e-marketplaces. Handbook of quantitative supply chain analysis: Modeling in the e-Business era, 74, 213.
  • Simchi-Levi, D., Wu, S. D., & Shen, Z. M. (2004). Decentralized decision making in dynamic technological systems. Handbook of quantitative supply chain analysis: modeling in the e-business era, 74, 117.

Ph.D Students

  • Gang Chen (2003, Barclays Capital, New York).
  • Leon Chu (2005, Associate Professor, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California).
  • Lian Qi (2006, Associate Professor, Department of Supply Chain Management & Marketing Science, Rutgers Business School, Rutgers University).
  • Lezhou Zhan (2007, Vice President, Operations Research at CitationAir).
  • Ho-Yin Mak (2009, Associate Professor, Said Business School, University of Oxford)
  • Tingting Cui (2010, Google Inc.)
  • Shan Li (2010, Assistant Professor, School of Business, City University of New York)
  • Will Haskell (2011, Assistant Professor, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, National University of Singapore)
  • Gemma Berenguer (2012, Assistant Professor, Krannert School of Management, Purdue University)
  • Vivek Ramamurthy (2012, Data Scientist, EMC Greenplum)
  • Ye Xu (2012, Amazon)
  • Yong Liang (2013, Assistant Professor, School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University)
  • Yifen Chen (2013, Data scientist at Facebook)
  • Tianhu Deng (2013, Assistant Professor, Department of Industrial Engineering, Tsinghua University)
  • Mengshi Lv (2014, Assistant Professor, Krannert School of Management, Purdue University)
  • Te Ke (2015, Assistant Professor, MIT Sloan School of Management)
  • Long He (2015, Assistant Professor, the Business School, National University of Singapore)
  • Wei Qi (2016, Assistant Professor, the Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University)
  • Amber Richter (2016, Google)
  • Vivian Zhao (2017, Lyft)
  • Yanqiao Wang (2018, Lyft)
  • Auyon Siddiq (2018, Assistant Professor, Anderson School of Business, UCLA)
  • Sheng Liu (2019, Assistant Professor of Operations Management and Statistics, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto)
  • Ying Cao (2019, Amazon)
  • Andy Mao (2019, Facebook)
  • Junyu Cao (2020, Assistant Professor, McCombs School of Business, The University of Texas at Austin)
  • Titouan Jehl (2020, Staff Data Scientist at Lyft)
  • Cristobal Pais (2021, Research Scientist, Amazon)
  • Meng Qi (2022, Assistant Professor, Operations, technology and information management at Cornell University SC Johnson College of Business)
  • Hansheng Jiang (2023, Assistant Professor of Operations Management and Statistics, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto)
  • Mengxin Wang (2023, Assistant Professor of Operations Management, Naveen Jindal School of Management, UT Dallas)
  • Marie Pelagie Elimbi Moudio (2023, Research Scientist, Amazon)
  • Yiduo Huang (2024, Postdoc, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
  • Yunduan Lin (2024, Assistant Professor, Business School, The Chinese University of Hong Kong)
  • Ilgin Dogan (2024, Assistant Professor, INSEAD Business School)
  • Mo Liu (2024, Assistant Professor, Department of Statistics and Operations Research, UNC Chapel Hill)
  • Mengzi Amy Guo (2025, expected)

Postdocs

  • Leon Chu (2004-2005, Professor, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California).
  • Ying Rong (2008-2009, Professor, Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiaotong University)
  • HyunJung Kim (2013-2014, Assistant Professor, National Seoul University, Korea)
  • Jiayi Joey Yu (2019-2020, PhD from Tsinghua University, Assistant Professor, School of Management, Fudan University)
  • Nooshin Salar (2020-2022, Assistant professor, Engineering Management, University of Alberta)

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