UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Nathaniel D. Bastian, a doctoral candidate in industrial engineering and operations research in the Harold and Inge Marcus Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at Penn State, has been awarded the Gilbreth Memorial Fellowship by the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE).
The Gilbreth award is issued to a graduate student pursuing an advanced degree in industrial engineering (or a field of its equivalent) who was nominated by his or her department head.
“It is an honor and privilege to receive this award from the IIE,” said Bastian. “This fellowship will be used to help fund my research on health care systems engineering within the military health system; specifically, research on resource allocation optimization under uncertainty for fixed-input health systems, as well as the development of novel multi-objective decision engineering tools for health system performance improvement.”
He also has been selected to participate in the 2015 IIE Doctoral Colloquium at the Industrial and Systems Engineering Research Conference (ISERC) May 30-31 in Nashville, Tennessee. ISERC is part of the IIE Annual Conference and Expo.
Paul Griffin, Bastian’s adviser and doctoral chair who is now the Virginia C. and Joseph C. Mello chair and professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech, was not surprised to hear of Bastian’s latest award, saying, “Nathan is unique in his ability, work effort and commitment to the field. In my 27 years as a faculty member, I have only come across a select few students who have approached his level of talent. It has been a real pleasure to work with him, and I look forward to many more years of collaboration.”
Professor and interim head of the Marcus department Harriet B. Nembhard, who is Bastian’s co-adviser and co-doctoral chair, echoed Griffin’s sentiments on Bastian’s work ethic by stating, “This award is not only an honor for Nathan, but it is motivation for us all to see that the hard work and dedication of our students is recognized by our professional society.”
IIE is the world’s largest professional society dedicated solely to the support of the industrial engineering profession and individuals involved with improving quality and productivity.
Bastian is no stranger to accolades. As a captain and a health care operations research analyst in the U.S. Army Medical Department, he was the recipient of the 2014 Wayne P. Hughes Junior Analyst Award from the Military Operations Research Society. He has been presented with awards from the National Science Foundation and the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, and he was a 2013 Seth Bonder Scholar for Applied Operations Research in Military Applications.
In addition, he is an adjunct faculty member for the master of science program in predictive analytics at Northwestern University and the master of science program in data analytics at the City University of New York.
A former Fulbright Scholar at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, Bastian holds a master’s degree in econometrics and operations research, as well as a bachelor’s degree in engineering management with honors from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He also earned a master’s degree in industrial engineering from Penn State in August 2014.