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 COVID19. 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 Environment, Health and Society Department.

Prior to joining Northeastern Dr. Ergun was the Coca-Cola Associate Professor in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology, where she also co-founded and co-directed the Health and Humanitarian Systems Research Center at the Supply Chain and Logistics Institute. She received a B.S. in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering from Cornell University in 1996 and a Ph.D. in Operations Research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2001.