Michael Ball Appointed Smith School Interim Dean

The University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business has announced the appointment of Michael Ball as interim dean effective immediately.

Ball, associate dean for faculty and research and Dean’s Chair in Management Science, serves as the School's Director of Research and is a former chair of both the Decision Operations and Information Technologies Faculty Area and Executive Committee of the Institute for Systems Research.

“Mike has a deep knowledge of the school, beginning as assistant professor in 1979 and serving in numerous roles since then with increasing distinction and leadership responsibility,” said Vice Dean Joyce Russell, who will work with Ball in carrying out the duties and responsibilities of the Office of the Dean until a new dean is appointed.

Ball succeeds G. “Anand” Anadalingam, whose 2007-2013 term as dean ended June 30. “We thank Anand for his years of fine service to the Smith School and the University of Maryland and in wishing him all the best as he begins his new work as Dean of Imperial College Business School in London,” Russell said.

With a Ph.D. in operations research from Cornell University, Ball has done extensive research in the areas of transportation systems and supply chain management, with particular focus on airport operations. He co-directs NEXTOR, the National Center of Excellence for Aviation Operations Research and oversees the Collaborative Decision Making research project for the center, which is funded by the FAA, NASA and other airline industry members.

Ball is area editor for transportation for Operations Research and is, or has been, associate editor for Networks, IEEE Transactions on Reliability, Operations Research, Operations Research Letters, Transportation Science and IIE Transactions. He is a member and fellow of INFORMS. He has over 100 publications in the aforementioned areas and has made over 100 presentations on these topics. He also has extensive consulting experience, which, in certain cases, has led to the development and successful implementation of major software systems.