Troy, N.Y. — Jennifer Pazour, assistant professor of industrial and systems engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has been selected to receive the Dr. Hamed K. Eldin Outstanding Early Career IE in Academia Award. The award, which is presented to only one recipient, recognizes individuals in academia who have demonstrated outstanding characteristics in education, leadership, professionalism, and potential in industrial engineering, according to the Institute of Industrial & Systems Engineers (IISE).

Industrial and systems engineers design, improve, and control systems and processes and thus make things better in all sectors of society — from automobile manufacturing and aerospace, to health care, supply chains, finance, leisure, and education, according to IISE. The organization, founded in 1948, helps its members improve complex organizations around the world and across industries. The Dr. Hamed K. Eldin Outstanding Early Career IE in Academia Award, which is sponsored by Integrated Systems Technology, recognizes individuals in academia who have demonstrated outstanding characteristics in education, leadership, professionalism, and potential in industrial engineering. The award also recognizes engineering contributions in application, design, research, or development of industrial engineering methods by early career IISE members.

In her research, Pazour explores how to make decisions in logistics and resource-sharing systems. Logistics is concerned with the movement and storage of goods, and plays a critical role in supply chain and disaster response. Resource sharing systems connect resource requests to a host of independent, decentralized resource owners. Pazour develops mathematical models and solution algorithms of complex systems as a way of understanding and quantifying trade-offs with operation and design decisions.

“My research takes a ‘big picture’ view and embraces the complexity of integrating technologies, resources, and human capital to identify and evaluate innovative policies and systems,” said Pazour.

Pazour’s research exemplifies the vision of The New Polytechnic, an emerging paradigm for teaching, learning, and research at Rensselaer, the foundation of which is the recognition that global challenges and opportunities are so great they cannot be adequately addressed by even the most talented person working alone. Rensselaer serves as a crossroads for collaboration — working with partners across disciplines, sectors, and geographic regions — to address complex global challenges, using the most advanced tools and technologies, many of which are developed at Rensselaer.

At Rensselaer, the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering is home to 170 undergraduate students and 24 graduate students enrolled in the master’s and Ph.D. program. The program was founded in 1933. This year, graduate programs in engineering at Rensselaer were once again considered among the best in the United States, according to the U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate Schools rankings released in March. Within the School of Engineering, four graduate programs are ranked in the top 25: aerospace engineering ranked 23rd, materials science and engineering ranked 22nd, nuclear engineering ranked 12th, and industrial engineering ranked 17th in the nation, up from 21st the previous year.

“We are delighted with the news that Jennifer Pazour has won this prestigious early career award,” said Shekhar Garde, dean of the School of Engineering at Rensselaer. “With the trifecta of young investigator awards from the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers, Gulf Research Program, and the Office of Naval Research, she is on a fantastic trajectory. She not only performs outstanding research focused on decision making in complex systems, she is also an excellent educator and a great ambassador for the Industrial and Systems Engineering discipline.”

Pazour holds three degrees in industrial engineering: a B.S. from South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, and an M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Arkansas. Before joining Rensselaer in 2015, she was an assistant professor of industrial engineering and management systems at the University of Central Florida.

She is a member of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences and the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers, and serves on the board of the Warehousing Education and Research Council. She is a recipient of a Gulf Research Program Early-Career Research Fellowship, a Young Investigator Award from the Office of Naval Research, a Research Start-up Grant from the Material Handling Institute, and a Doctoral Dissertation Enhancement Project from the National Science Foundation.

Each year, the Institute of Industrial & Systems Engineers formally recognizes the accomplishments of prominent practitioners and students with a variety of awards, scholarships, and fellowships. Pazour will receive the award on Monday, May 22, during the Honors and Awards Banquet event that will be held in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Note: To learn more about Professor Jennifer Pazour’s teaching, research interests, and thoughts and views related to industrial engineering and operations research, watch this video, and visit her blog: https://jenpazour.wordpress.com/.

About Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, founded in 1824, is America’s first technological research university. For nearly 200 years, Rensselaer has been defining the scientific and technological advances of our world. Rensselaer faculty and alumni represent 85 members of the National Academy of Engineering, 17 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 25 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 8 members of the National Academy of Medicine, 8 members of the National Academy of Inventors, and 5 members of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, as well as a Nobel Prize winner in Physics. With over 7,000 students and nearly 100,000 living alumni, Rensselaer is addressing the global challenges facing the 21st century—to change lives, to advance society, and to change the world. To learn more, go to www.rpi.edu.