Friday, April 10, 2026
2:00pm-3:00pm
Mechanical Engineering Building, MC102
5 King's College Road
Interested members of the U of T community who would like to attend the seminars can email Kendra Hunter at hunter@mie.utoronto.ca
Professor Pinar Keskinocak
H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) at Georgia Tech
Planning Interventions and Operationalizing Deployment for Infectious Disease Control
Abstract
Infectious diseases continue to impact millions of people every year around the world, despite many advances in medicine and technology. For some of these diseases, pharmaceutical interventions such as testing, vaccines, or treatment are not available, resources for their deployment are limited, or there are other (e.g., logistical, societal) challenges in deployment. Decisions regarding what, when, and how to deploy need to incorporate various short- and long-term considerations, as well as human behaviors such as following non-pharmaceutical intervention recommendations or uptake of available pharmaceutical interventions. In this presentation, we will illustrate these challenges using a few examples from infectious diseases that are targeted for elimination or eradication, and share results from modeling studies to help inform these complex decisions.
Biography
Pinar Keskinocak is the H. Milton and Carolyn J. Stewart School Chair and Professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) at Georgia Tech. She is also co-founder and director of the Center for Health and Humanitarian Systems. Previously, she served as the Associate Chair for Faculty Development in ISyE, as College of Engineering ADVANCE Professor and as interim Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Scholarship. Prior to joining Georgia Tech, she worked at IBM T.J. Watson Research Center. She received her Ph.D. in Operations Research from Carnegie Mellon University, and her M.S. and B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Bilkent University.
She is an INFORMS Fellow and an IISE Fellow. She served as the president of INFORMS in 2020. Previously she served as the Secretary of INFORMS, a department editor for Operations Research (Policy Modeling and Public Sector area), associate editor for Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, and INFORMS Vice President of Membership and Professional Recognition. She served as the co-founder and past-president of INFORMS Public Sector OR section, and the president of the INFORMS Health Applications Society.
MIE’s Distinguished Seminar Series features top international researchers and leading experts across major areas of Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Engineering. The speakers present about their latest research and offer their perspectives on the current state of their field. The seminars are part of the program requirements for MIE Master of Applied Science and PhD students. The Distinguished Seminar Series is coordinated for 2025-2026 by Professor Enid Montague.
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