Authority control databases
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
Laura Albert | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
| Awards | Fulbright Award (2020) IISE Fellow (2020) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Operations research
Industrial engineering Discrete optimization Sports Analytics |
| Institutions | University of Wisconsin-Madison Virginia Commonwealth University |
| Doctoral advisor | Sheldon H. Jacobson |
| Website | directory |
Laura Albert (formerly Laura McLay) is a professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the College of Engineering. Albert is an expert in Operations Research, specializing solving and modeling discrete optimization problems arising from applications in homeland security, disaster management, emergency response, public services, and healthcare.[1]
Albert is the daughter of James and Julie Albert, and she graduated from James B. Conant High School in 1996.[2]
Albert completed her bachelor in General Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2000 with an International Minor in German. She continued to study for her master's degree in General Engineering and Computational Science at the same institution in 2001. In 2006, Albert completed her PhD in Industrial Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on the topic "Designing aviation security systems: Theory and practice".[3]
Albert's research interests are in the field of Operations Research. She has published more than 55 articles[4] on topics including public safety, emergency response, homeland security, aviation security, emergency medical services, infrastructure protection, and cyber-security.[5] This research is primarily in the area of discrete optimization.
Albert is very active within the operations research and management science community. In 2021 she was elected to the role of President-Elect of INFORMS; she will lead the organization starting in 2023.[13] She had served as INFORMS Vice President for Marketing, Communication and Outreach from 2016 to 2019.[14] She has also served as the President of Women in OR/MS (WORMS, a forum of INFORMS), the President of the INFORMS Section on Public Sector Operations Research, and a member of the INFORMS Strategic Planning Committee, Finance Committee, and IT committee.
Albert is the author of Punk Rock Operations Research,[15] a popular blog about operations research and analytics. Albert is also the director of Badger Bracketology[16] and its blog that reports on the methodology for forecasting the NCAA football playoff based on the research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering sports analytics team. Albert routinely promotes operations research, industrial engineering, and analytics through her blogs, public talks and media interviews. She regularly appears on local and national media,[17] including PBS Wisconsin,[18] WORT Radio,[19][20] Wisconsin Public Radio,[21] CBS58 in Milwaukee,[22] WISC-TV in Madison,[23][24][25] the MIT Management Review,[26] and Wharton Moneyball,[27] among many others. Profiles of Albert have appeared in American Society for Engineering Education PRISM,[28] the Wisconsin State Journal,[29] the Cap Times,[30] and SB Nation Bucky's 5th Quarter.[31]
