Soroush Saghafian Directory Page

Dr. Soroush Saghafian (Wikipedia) is currently an Associate Professor in the Decision, Operations and Information Technologies (DO&IT) Department at the Robert H. Smith School of Business and holds a joint appointment with the Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute at Maryland (AIM). Prior to joining the University of Maryland, he spent over a decade as a faculty member (Assistant and Associate Professor) at Harvard University. There, he served as the founder and director of the Public Impact Analytics Science Lab (PIAS-Lab) at Harvard, which is devoted to advancing and applying the science of analytics to solving societal problems that can have a public impact.

His teaching focuses on AI, machine learning, and big data analytics tools for solving societal problems. He has collaborated with a variety of hospitals to improve their operational efficiency, patient flow, medical decision-making, and, more broadly, healthcare delivery policies.

He also served as a core faculty member of the Harvard Center for Health Decision Science; a faculty affiliate of the Harvard Ph.D. Program in Health Policy, Harvard Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government (M-RCBG), Harvard Data Science Initiative, Harvard Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and Harvard Center for Public Leadership. He was also an associate faculty member at Harvard Ariadne Labs (Health Systems Innovation) and held collaboration appointments at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC).

Dr. Saghafian’s research has appeared in the news, including in pieces and interviews by PBS News, NBC News, U.S. News, NPR, Fast Company, Euronews, The Hill, The Boston Globe, the National Academy of Medicine, Harvard Gazette, The Harvard Crimson, The Independent, Industry Global News 24, Global Health News Wire, EurekAlert! (American Association for the Advancement of Science), Medscape, Medical Xpress, Managed Healthcare Executive, DOTmed, ABC Channel (TV), Devdiscourse, and INFORMS.

He has won various awards for his research, including the INFORMS MSOM 2023 Responsible Research Award (second place), “for contributing knowledge that may have implications for making the world a better place by informing evidence-based, high-quality, and societally beneficial organizational practices across business, government, and nongovernmental organizations”; the INFORMS MSOM Young Scholar Prize (2021), “for outstanding contributions to scholarship in operations management”; the Inaugural INFORMS 2020 Mehrotra Research Excellence Award, “for significant contributions to the practice of health applications through operations research (OR) and management science (MS) modeling and methodologies”; the INFORMS 2018 Public Sector Best Paper Award (second place); the 2010 INFORMS Pierskalla Award, “for the best research paper in healthcare”; and the 2025 Marquis Who’s Who Honored Listee Recognition.

Dr. Saghafian serves on the editorial boards of several journals, including Management Science, Operations Research, Production and Operations Management, Service Science, and IISE Transactions. He also serves as a senior editor, associate editor, or referee for various journals, including Management Science, Operations Research, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Health Care Management Science, Mathematical Reviews (American Mathematical Society), Operations Research Letters, Naval Research Logistics, Service Science, and Production and Operations Management.

Dr. Saghafian has also served as a chair, co-chair, or review panel member for various committees, including the INFORMS Pierskalla Award for the Best Paper in Healthcare, INFORMS Healthcare Applications Society Best Student Paper Award, INFORMS MSOM Healthcare Special Interest Group, INFORMS MSOM Best Student Paper review panel, POMS College of Healthcare Operations Management Best Paper Award, and the review panel for the International Conference on Health Care Systems Engineering.

Dr. Saghafian’s research has been supported through various grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs, Mayo Clinic, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Harvard University, among others.