Karen Zheng

Karen Zheng is the George M. Bunker Associate Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management, where she has been a faculty member since 2011. She holds a PhD in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University (2011), and BS and MS degrees in Automation from Tsinghua University.

• Research Interests: Smallholder supply chains in developing countries, supply chain transparency, environmentally and socially responsible operations, and behavioral operations research.
• Teaching: Courses like Operations Strategy, Stochastic Models in Business Analytics, and Behavioral Decision Theories at MBA, PhD, and undergraduate levels.

Her articles focus on agricultural supply chains, behavioral economics, and supply chain transparency. Recent work includes Supply Chain Transparency and Sustainability (2023) and Artificial Shortage in Agricultural Supply Chains (2022). She collaborates with organizations like Fair Trade USA, the 2030 Water Resources Group, and the World Bank to design field-based solutions for smallholder farmers and supply chain transparency. She has received scientific awards such as the MSOM award (2020) and an NSF award (2015). Her media highlights include work on optimizing online auctions for poverty alleviation and data-driven market intelligence in India.