Arjang A. Assad Senior Associate Dean and Professor Decision and Information Technologies Department Telephone: (301) 405-2194 Office:  2570H Van Munching Hall E-Mail: aassad@rhsmith.umd.edu

(Updated 3/3/06)

Arjang A. Assad received his Ph.D. in Management Science from the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1978. He also holds a B.S. in Mathematics, and two master’s degrees in Chemical Engineering and Operations Research from the same institution. He joined the University of Maryland in 1978, and was promoted to Professor of Management Science in 1988.  During 1998-2003, he served as the chair of the Decision & Information Technologies group, the largest department within the School.  In July 2004, he was appointed Senior Associate Dean at the Smith School.

Dr. Assad received the Kirwan Undergraduate Education Award in 2002.  This award recognizes outstanding contributions to undergraduate education on the UM campus.   Dr. Assad was selected as a Lilly-CTE Fellow for 1999-2000, and won the Krowe Award for teaching innovation at the R. H. Smith School of Business twice in 1999 and 2001.  He was also awarded the 1996 Maryland Association of Higher Education Award for innovative instruction in the IBM Total Quality Curriculum Program.

During 1991-1998, Dr. Assad played a leading role in the IBM Total Quality Project, now called QUEST, a five-year partnership with IBM to foster the principles of Total Quality (TQ) on campus. He served as the Director (December 1994-December 1997) after leading the curriculum component of the project earlier. He studied industry-university partnerships as a member of the nationwide TQ Leadership Steering Committee Advisory Council.

SERVICE TO THE UNIVERSITY

Dr. Assad has a long-standing commitment to service at the university level.  During 1989-1994, he served as the business faculty lead in the collaborative efforts of the  business and engineering schools in state-sponsored manufacturing initiative. His activities included contact with Maryland manufacturing firms and the Maryland Foundation for Manufacturing Excellence.  From 1994 to 1997, he was a member of the Continuous Quality Improvement Council—a cabinet-level group led by UM President Kirwan that sponsored and oversaw quality improvement initiatives on campus.   Dr. Assad is also the Founding Chairperson and Fellow of the Academy for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (AETL).  He played a leading role the formation of this faculty-led organization as the chair of the Founding Council for the Academy during 2001-2002.  He has also served a several key campus committees and program reviews. 

PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES AND EDITORIAL BOARDS

Dr. Assad is a member of the Operations Research Society of America (ORSA), The Institute of Management Sciences (TIMS), and the Production and Operations Management Society (POMS).  From 1998 to 2004, he chaired the INFORMS History and Traditions Committee, and led the effort to create the Miser-Harris Presidential Portrait Gallery project.

Dr. Assad has served on the following editorial boards: Transportation Science (1988 - 1992); The INFORMS Journal on Computing (1989 - 1997); Production and Operations Management (1990 - 2002); Operations Research (1984-1987); American Journal of Mathematical and Managerial Sciences (1986 - 2003).

RESEARCH INTERESTS AND INSTRUCTION

The research interests of Dr. Assad lie in the area of distribution and transportation modeling with special emphasis on vehicle routing, and mathematical programming models. He has also published in the areas of production and operations management and project management. He is currently teaching the doctoral course in linear programming methods.  Previously, he co-taught the gateway course on design and quality and the capstone practicum course for the QUEST program with colleagues from the Engineering School.  He has also and taught courses in production and operations management, manufacturing strategy, Total Quality management, and linear programming.  Dr. Assad has also designed and delivered executive programs focusing on Total Quality, Manufacturing Strategy, and Project Management.  In particular, he was one of the originators of Black & Decker’s TOBE program in manufacturing. 

PUBLICATIONS

Dr. Assad has over 50 publications in refereed periodicals and has published three books.  His latest book, co-authored with Saul Gass and entitled  An Annotated Timeline of Operations Research: An informal history, appeared in 2005.  It was preceded by Excellence in Management Science: A Readings Book with Wasil and Lilien (Prentice-Hall, 1992) and Vehicle Routing: Methods and Studies with B. Golden (North-Holland, 1988).  He has also guest-edited three special scholarly compilations published by the American Sciences Press and guest-edited special issues of Interfaces and Computers & Operations Research.

INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE

Dr. Assad has worked on a variety of distribution and manufacturing problems for major U.S. corporations including Mid-Atlantic Toyota, Forster Mfg, DuPont, UPS, Federal Express, IBM, and the Orkand Corporation.  He has also consulted as an expert in operations research and operations management for the Federal Aviation Administration, the Bureau of the Census, the United States Postal Service, the U.S. Army, DOE, and the Red Cross.  In addition, he has advised numerous student teams engaged in company-sponsored projects.