Thomas Robbins

Thomas Robbins is an Associate Professor in the Department of Marketing & Supply Chain Management within the College of Business at East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina. He teaches courses including Management Science, Statistics, Operations and Supply Chain Management, Project Management, and has also delivered a Big Data & Analytics seminar in the ECU Honors College.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Business Administration and Operations Research – The Pennsylvania State University, 2007
• MBA – Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, 1989
• B.S. in Electrical Engineering – The Pennsylvania State University, 1985

Research Interests: Dr. Robbins’ scholarship centers on applying rigorous quantitative models to real-world business and societal problems. His expertise spans simulation, linear, integer and stochastic programming, predictive analytics, sports analytics, service sciences, and innovative business education. Current themes include optimizing service operations, forecasting in sports and betting markets, and data-driven decision making in healthcare and quick-service industries.

Publication Trends: Over the past fifteen years his work has appeared in leading journals such as European Journal of Operational Research, Service Science, Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education, International Journal of Operations & Quantitative Management, The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, and The Wiley Encyclopedia of OR/MS. A clear trajectory emerges from early stochastic call-center models and workforce cross-training studies (2010-2012), through healthcare learning-curve analyses (2011-2015), to contemporary topics in sports analytics, COVID-19 modeling, and pedagogical innovation (2017-2023).

Previous Career: Before academia, Dr. Robbins accumulated 20 years of industry experience at IBM, Boston Market, Advanced Graphical Applications, General Electric, and—most prominently—as a Partner in the consulting practice of Ernst & Young, retiring from Cap Gemini in 2002 as a Vice President.

Grants & Funding: Specific grant details are not provided in the source text.

Labs & Teams: While no formal laboratory is named, his affiliation with the College of Business and ongoing research collaborations suggest active participation in the university’s analytics and operations communities.