Ravi Ravindran, professor of industrial engineering, has been named the interim head of the Harold and Inge Marcus Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering.
Ravindran takes over for Richard Koubek, who is leaving the post to become the dean of Louisiana State University's College of Engineering. Ravindran, who previously served as department head, became interim department head on June 1.
He has taught courses at Penn State for twelve years, including operations research at the undergraduate level and courses in multi-criteria decision making and supply chain engineering at the graduate level.
Ravindran's research interests include supply chain modeling, portfolio optimization/financial engineering, goal programming, interactive methods for multiple criteria optimization, applications of mathematical programming to health planning, quality control, transportation networks, hazardous waste disposal and system reliability.
Throughout his career, Ravindran has received numerous honors and awards, including the Fulbright Scholar Award, the Albert G. Holzman Distinguished Educator Award from the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE), the Franz Edelman Finalist Award for Management Science Achievement from the Institute of Management Sciences (INFORMS) and an IIE fellows award.
He is a member of IIE, INFORMS and the American Society for Engineering Education.
Ravindran received his B.S. in electrical engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in Pilani, India. He holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in industrial engineering and operations research from the University of California, Berkeley.