Raul Astudillo Marban is a Postdoctoral Scholar Research Associate in the Department of Computing and Mathematical Sciences at Caltech, hosted by Professor Yisong Yue. He will join MBZUAI as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in August 2025. His research focuses on adaptive learning and decision-making in complex, data-intensive environments, with applications in personalized healthcare, engineering design, and scientific discovery. He earned his Ph.D. in Operations Research and Information Engineering from Cornell University under Professor Peter Frazier and holds an undergraduate degree in Mathematics from the University of Guanajuato and the Center for Research in Mathematics. His work integrates Bayesian optimization and machine learning to address real-world challenges such as protein engineering, plant breeding, and computational biology. Key contributions include steering generative models with experimental data, preferential multi-objective optimization, and cost-aware Bayesian strategies. He has received recognition as a Rising Star in Management Science and Engineering (Stanford) and a Rising Star in Data Science (University of Chicago/UCSD). Recent research highlights include optimizing protein fitness through generative models, active learning in directed evolution, and Bayesian optimization for budget allocation in agriculture. His publications span top venues like NeurIPS, Nature Communications, and TMLR. He actively recruits students/researchers for projects in machine learning and optimization.
Wei Xiong is the Hugh Leander and Mary Trumbull Adams Professor in Finance and Professor of Economics at Princeton University, affiliated with the Department of Economics and Bendheim Center for Finance. His research centers on behavioral finance and capital market imperfections with a focus on China's financial system and commodity markets. His educational background includes: Ph.D. in Finance from Duke University (2001) B.S. in Physics from University of Science and Technology of China (1993) Research Interests: Professor Xiong's work fundamentally explores behavioral finance and capital market imperfections , pioneering studies on speculative bubbles , heterogeneous beliefs in asset pricing , and financing frictions . His recent scholarship critically examines the financialization of commodity markets , belief distortions during financial crises , and the unique institutional dynamics of China's hybrid economy , where state and market forces interact. Publication Trends: Xiong's 48 publications in top-tier journals reveal an evolving trajectory from classical behavioral finance (2001-2013) toward contemporary China-focused systemic analysis (2017-2025). Recent works integrate cryptocurrency economics, real estate risk management, and policy design in emerging markets, demonstrating methodological rigor through structural modeling and empirical analysis of large-scale financial datasets. Scientific Awards: 2012 Smith Breeden Award (first prize) for the best non-corporate finance paper published in Journal of Finance 2013 NASDAQ OMX Award for the best asset pricing paper presented in Western Finance Association Meetings Professional Activities: As NBER research associate and former Management Science finance editor (2009-2011), Xiong bridges academia and policy. He co-founded VoxChina.org to foster China-world economic dialogue and co-edited The Handbook of China’s Financial System (Princeton University Press). His keynote addresses at major conferences—including the 2024 Chinese Economists Society meeting on “Information Discovery in a Hybrid Economy”—demonstrate sustained policy influence. Labs and Initiatives: Xiong leads Princeton's Bendheim Center for Finance research initiatives and directs VoxChina.org, which produces influential policy analyses on China's economy. His recent work includes the NBER-commissioned study on commodity market risks and ongoing projects examining big tech lending models and data privacy impacts on digital finance.
Professor Ana Mijic is a leading academic in water systems integration at Imperial College London's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (Faculty of Engineering). Her work focuses on developing systems tools to balance economic growth with sustainable water use, flood management, and water quality under future uncertainties. She leads high-profile projects like the EPSRC VENTURA initiative and the NERC CAMELLIA impact programme, emphasizing adaptive planning and grey/green infrastructure integration in urban systems. Education: BEng (First Class) in Civil Engineering from the University of Belgrade (Serbia), MSc (Distinction) in Hydrology for Environmental Management, and PhD in Earth Science & Engineering from Imperial College London (2013). Previously served as a teaching assistant in Fluid Mechanics and Hydrometry at Belgrade University. Research interests include whole-water system modelling, socio-hydrological interactions, and nature-based solutions for resilient urban water systems. Her work bridges academia and practice through partnerships with regulators like the UK Environment Agency and global initiatives like the IAHS HELPING programme. Awards include the Satish Dhawan Visiting Chair Professorship (2022) and the 2019 Imperial President’s Award for Excellence in Research (as part of her Hydrology team). She co-leads Imperial’s Transition to Zero Pollution (TZP) Urban Ecosystems theme and serves on editorial boards for journals like Water Security . Her contributions span over 50 peer-reviewed articles (2020–2025), focusing on integrated water management frameworks, AI-driven monitoring, and systemic approaches to urban resilience. She advocates for participatory decision-making and policy coherence in water governance.
Prof. Dr. Mirko Kremer is a Professor of Supply Chain Management at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management since July 2014. Prior to this, he was an Assistant Professor at Pennsylvania State University (2008-2014) and held visiting roles at London Business School, Kellogg School of Management, and INSEAD. He earned a Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of Mannheim (2008), with prior studies in Business Administration at Mannheim (1999-2003) and Economics at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (1997-1999). Research Focus: Micro-behavioral foundations of supply chains, inventory management, sales forecasting, and service systems. Editorial Roles: Department Editor for Production and Operations Management , Associate Editor for Operations Research . Teaching: Courses in Operations Management, Supply Chain Strategy, and quantitative decision modeling at Frankfurt School, INSEAD, London Business School, and Kellogg School of Management. Research Trends: His work bridges behavioral economics with supply chain operations, emphasizing how human decision-making (e.g., managerial biases, consumer behavior) impacts inventory systems, pricing strategies, and forecasting accuracy. Recent articles focus on diagnostic errors under congestion, strategic sourcing biases, and dynamic pricing experiments.
Paolo Gardoni is the Alfredo H. Ang Family Professor and an Excellence Faculty Scholar in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, with additional professorial appointments in Industrial & Enterprise Systems Engineering and Biomedical & Translational Sciences. He also serves as Director of the MAE Center and Editor-in-Chief of Reliability Engineering & System Safety. Education Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, University of California, Berkeley (2002) M.A. in Statistics, University of California, Berkeley (2001) M.Eng. in Structural Engineering, University of Tokyo (1997) Laurea (BS+MS equivalent) in Structural Engineering, Politecnico di Milano (1997) Research Interests Gardoni’s scholarship integrates probabilistic methods with large-scale infrastructure systems to advance reliability, risk, and life-cycle analysis. His work quantifies the performance of deteriorating systems under natural and anthropogenic hazards, models societal impacts of disasters, and develops decision frameworks for sustainable and resilient infrastructure. He also examines ethical, social, and legal dimensions of risk, and investigates optimal strategies for hazard mitigation, disaster recovery, and climate adaptation. Across more than 250 refereed journal papers, he has advanced sub-fields ranging from probabilistic mechanics and earthquake engineering to catastrophe bond pricing and engineering ethics, leveraging tools such as stochastic differential equations, Bayesian networks, and physics-informed machine learning. Awards & Honors Alfredo Ang Award on Risk Analysis and Management of Civil Infrastructure (ASCE, 2021) Best Paper Awards in ASCE Journal of Sustainable Water in the Built Environment (2019) and Geotechnical Research (2018 Telford Premium Prize) Fellowships and named professorships: Alfredo H. Ang Family Professor, Excellence Faculty Scholar, and courtesy or honorary professorships at Tsinghua, IIT Guwahati, Tongji, Jianghan, and Loughborough universities. Research Leadership & Funding Gardoni has secured over $58 million in research funding from NSF, DHS, NIST, USAID, Qatar National Research Fund, and other agencies. He directs the MAE Center—formerly an NSF Engineering Research Center—focused on multi-hazard engineering approaches, and is Editor-in-Chief of Reliability Engineering & System Safety (Elsevier, IF 9.4). He founded and formerly led the journal Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure (Taylor & Francis) and serves on editorial boards of nine additional journals. Advising & Mentorship He has graduated 27 PhD and 35 Master’s students, many of whom now hold faculty positions worldwide. His group maintains an active pipeline of doctoral and post-doctoral researchers working on resilience analytics, infrastructure monitoring, and risk-informed decision-making. Laboratories & Collaborations He leads the MAE Center and is affiliated with the Critical Infrastructure Resilience Institute (CIRI) and the Biomedical and Translational Sciences group. International collaborations span the UK (Loughborough), India (IIT Guwahati), and China (Tsinghua, Tongji, Jianghan), fostering cross-disciplinary research in reliability and resilience engineering.
Tracey Evans Chan is an Associate Professor and Director of the NUS Law Academy at the National University of Singapore's Faculty of Law. His expertise lies in biomedical law and ethics, with a focus on issues such as surrogacy, transplant ethics, and human-animal research. He has held significant roles, including a secondment to Singapore's Ministry of Health, where he contributed to the Human Biomedical Research Act 2015. He currently serves on the National Medical Ethics Committee and the Advisory Committee on Restricted Research under the same Act, and is a member of NUS's Institutional Review Board. Education: LLM (Harvard University) LLB (National University of Singapore) Research Interests: Chan's work bridges legal and ethical dimensions of biomedical advancements. Key areas include regulatory challenges in mitochondrial replacement technology, consent frameworks for minors, and the ethical implications of emerging medical technologies. His contributions to Singapore's legal committees reflect his commitment to balancing innovation with societal values. Publications & Trends: His recent works explore themes like advance care planning, the placebo effect in clinical practice, and cross-jurisdictional comparisons of healthcare dependency laws. These publications underscore his interdisciplinary approach to legal and biomedical challenges. Awards & Grants: No specific awards or grants are listed, but his policy contributions and academic output highlight his impactful work in regulatory frameworks. Advising & Teams: As a faculty member, he teaches courses like Medical Law and Ethics. His involvement in NUS's Institutional Review Board and Singapore's advisory committees demonstrates his role in shaping research ethics and healthcare policy.
Soroush Saghafian is an Associate Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School, specializing in applying operations research and machine learning to address public health challenges. He leads the Public Impact Analytics Science Lab (PIAS-Lab), focusing on analytics-driven solutions for societal problems. His research spans healthcare delivery optimization, emergency department efficiency, and public health policy. Notable collaborations include Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard's Center for Health Decision Science. Awards include the INFORMS MSOM Responsible Research Award and the Pierskalla Award for healthcare research. Recent work includes studies on hospital closures' impacts, predictive analytics for bipolar disorder using Fitbit data, and policy implications of race in disease risk models. He teaches courses on machine learning and big data for public impact.
Christopher L. Foote is a Principal Economist and Policy Advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, where he has worked since 2003. He also holds the title of Professor in the Department of Economics at Harvard University since 2012. Foote earned his BA from the College of William and Mary in 1987 and a PhD in economics from the University of Michigan in 1996. His academic career includes teaching positions at Harvard University (1996–2002) and visiting roles at MIT (2004–2006). His research focuses on labor economics, housing, and macroeconomics. Key areas include labor market polarization, mortgage debt patterns, housing market dynamics, geographic disparities in mortality, and economic impacts of population aging. His work frequently addresses policy implications for financial and labor market stability. Measuring employment through online panels Geographic mortality disparities Mortgage debt and foreclosure analysis Population aging effects Historical labor market discrimination Business cycle modeling Foote has received prestigious awards including the Regents Fellowship, Rackham Pre-doctoral Fellowship, and Alfred P. Sloan Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship. He has also served as Associate Editor and editorial board member for major economic journals. His work spans academic publications in top journals, book chapters, and numerous working papers that analyze economic trends and policy responses. Foote's contributions cover housing economics, labor market dynamics, and macroeconomic policy, with a focus on empirical analysis and real-world applications.
Anujit Chakraborty is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of California, Davis . His research bridges Economic Theory , Behavioral Economics , and Experimental Economics , focusing on decision-making under risk and time constraints, procrastination, and present-biased behavior. Education : Ph.D. in Economics (University of British Columbia, 2017), M.S. in Quantitative Economics (Indian Statistical Institute, 2011), B.E. in Electronics Engineering (Jadavpur University, 2009) His work explores procrastination , present bias , prosocial behavior , and interpersonal uncertainty , often using experimental methods to analyze anomalies in economic preferences. Recent publications investigate democracy measurement , news source diversity , and peer-grading systems . Dr. Chakraborty teaches Intermediate Economics (ECN 100B) and Behavioral Economics at both undergraduate and Ph.D. levels.
Abigail Scholer is a Professor specializing in self-regulation and motivation. Her research explores how motivational orientations influence decision-making, self-control conflicts, and adaptive change. She holds a BA from Gettysburg College and a PhD from Columbia University. Her work bridges educational, social, and cognitive psychology, with a focus on understanding the mechanisms behind human triumphs and failures in facing life's demands. Key research themes include metamotivational processes, goal pursuit dynamics, and the interplay between motivation and emotional regulation. Her lab, the Self-Regulation and Motivation Lab , investigates practical applications of these theories in academic and organizational settings. Publications span topics like motivational affordance, risk preferences, and the impact of threat on stereotyping. While no awards are listed, her contributions to motivational science are reflected in high-impact journals such as Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and Psychological Science . No advising or grant details are provided, though her lab's activities suggest active research participation.
Jorge Lemus is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, with a dual appointment in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and the College of Law. His research focuses on industrial organization, microeconomics, and the intersection of patent law with innovation policy. He holds a PhD in Economics and maintains affiliations in both economics and law schools, reflecting his interdisciplinary work. Key research interests include strategic patent examination processes, merger impacts on market competition, and design of contests and contracts in regulatory contexts. His work often addresses issues such as signaling in dynamic competitions, regulatory frameworks for innovation, and antitrust implications of patent settlements. Lemus has contributed to debates on topics like organizational disruption in the airline industry and the efficacy of post-grant patent opposition systems. Publications frequently explore empirical and theoretical dimensions of contests, patent litigation strategies, and regulatory outcomes. His work bridges economic theory with legal and policy analysis, particularly in areas affecting technological advancement and market dynamics. External collaborations and grants are not explicitly detailed in the provided texts, but his research website (https://sites.google.com/site/jorgelemuswebsite/) likely contains further details on ongoing projects and affiliations.
Dr. Yongjia Song is an Associate Professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering at Clemson University's College of Engineering, Computing and Applied Sciences. His research focuses on optimization under uncertainty, stochastic programming, and network interdiction with applications in disaster logistics, energy systems, and humanitarian operations. BS in Computational Mathematics (2009), Peking University MS in Industrial Engineering (2012), University of Wisconsin-Madison MS in Computer Sciences (2012), University of Wisconsin-Madison PhD in Industrial Engineering (2013), University of Wisconsin-Madison His work addresses complex systems under uncertainty through: Stochastic and robust optimization frameworks Integer programming for discrete decision problems Applications in disaster response and transportation networks Evacuation planning and shelter management Human trafficking disruption modeling Recent publications demonstrate trends in: Multistage stochastic programming for dynamic disaster response Bayesian preference elicitation for complex design problems Network interdiction models for security and trafficking disruption Integration of logistics and evacuation planning under uncertainty Adaptive algorithms for large-scale optimization Professional affiliations include: Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) Mathematical Optimization Society (MOS) Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) He teaches graduate courses in risk modeling (IE 8090) and actively works on practical implementations of optimization techniques in real-world systems.
Cong Shi, also known as Alex Shi, is a Professor of Management at the Miami Herbert Business School, University of Miami, since 2025. Previously, he served as Associate Professor at the University of Michigan (2019-2023) and Assistant Professor there (2012-2019). His academic journey began with a B.Sc. in Mathematics (First Class Honors) from the National University of Singapore (2007) and a Ph.D. in Operations Research from MIT (2012) under Professor Retsef Levi. Education : MIT (Ph.D.), NUS (B.Sc.) Current Role : Professor, Management, Miami Herbert Business School Prior Roles : Associate Professor (Tenured), University of Michigan; Assistant Professor, University of Michigan His research spans Revenue Management, Supply Chain Management, Healthcare Operations, Human-Robot Interaction, and Data-Driven Optimization. Recent publications focus on fairness-constrained inventory, sequential pricing, and trust-aware robotics. He has received prestigious awards including the Senior Research Award (2025) and Amazon Research Award (2021), alongside multiple INFORMS recognitions. The 15 most recent articles highlight advancements in inventory control with fairness constraints, sequential pricing algorithms, and trust propagation models in robotics. His work bridges theoretical rigor with practical applications in supply chains and human-robot collaboration. Scientific Awards : Senior Research Award, Miami Herbert Business School, 2025 Amazon Research Award, 2021 INFORMS Meritorious Service Awards (2018, 2019, 2021, 2023) IOE Graduate Course Professor of the Year, University of Michigan, 2019 He has advised 10 PhD students, many now in academia (e.g., UC Berkeley, Penn State) or tech roles (Meta, Amazon). Grants include NSF funding as PI and Co-PI.
Sharan Vaswani is an Assistant Professor in the School of Computing Science at Simon Fraser University (SFU). His research focuses on designing algorithms for sequential decision-making under uncertainty, stochastic optimization, and their interplay with machine learning generalization. He holds a PhD from the University of British Columbia (2019) and postdoctoral experiences at the University of Alberta and Mila. His academic journey includes MSc (UBC, 2015) and BTech (BITS Pilani, 2012) degrees. Education: PhD (UBC, 2019), MSc (UBC, 2015), BTech (BITS Pilani, 2012) Postdoctoral Work: University of Alberta (2020-2021), Mila (2019-2020) Teaching includes courses on Probability and Computing (CMPT 210), Optimization for Machine Learning (CMPT 409/981), and Theoretical Foundations of Reinforcement Learning (CMPT 419/983). His research group focuses on developing scalable optimization algorithms with theoretical guarantees. He advises multiple PhD and MSc students, contributing to areas like constrained MDPs, adaptive learning rates, and reinforcement learning theory. Research Highlights: Contributions to bandit algorithms, stochastic gradient methods, and reinforcement learning theory. Notable work includes global convergence analysis of policy gradients and variance-reduced optimization frameworks.
Giuseppe Fontana is an Associate Professor of Political Economy (SECS-P/01) at the University of Sannio (UNISANNIO) in the Department of Law, Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods (DEMM). He has maintained an active research profile for over two decades, establishing himself as a significant contributor to Post-Keynesian economics and monetary theory. His research interests include: Post-Keynesian Economics Monetary Theory and Endogenous Money Macroeconomic Policy and Financial Stability Financialization and Socioeconomic Impacts Economic Methodology and History of Economic Thought International Trade and Exchange Rate Theory Stock-Flow Consistent Modeling Fontana's scholarly trajectory demonstrates a consistent focus on heterodox economic approaches, particularly Post-Keynesian theory. His work evolved from theoretical contributions in the early 2000s to increasingly policy-relevant analyses of contemporary economic challenges. His recent publications show special attention to the Eurozone crisis, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on European economies, and the theoretical foundations of monetary production. He frequently employs stock-flow consistent modeling to provide comprehensive analyses of macroeconomic phenomena, challenging mainstream economic frameworks with alternative theoretical perspectives. Fontana has established important collaborations with scholars like Emiliano Brancaccio, Riccardo Realfonzo, and Marc Lavoie, demonstrating his integration within international networks of heterodox economists. His work has been published in leading heterodox economics journals including the Cambridge Journal of Economics, Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, and Review of Political Economy, as well as in edited volumes with major academic publishers like Palgrave Macmillan and Edward Elgar.
