Acimovic's Doctoral Dissertation Wins Second Prestigious Award

Jason Acimovic, assistant professor of supply chain management in the Penn State Smeal College of Business, has won the 2013 George B. Dantzig Dissertation Award for his doctoral dissertation, Lowering Outbound Shipping Costs in an Online Retail Environment by Making Better Fulfillment and Replenishment Decisions.

“Online sales make up a large portion of the retail sector now, and their share will only grow,” explained Acimovic. “Many supply chain tools developed for traditional brick-and-mortar retailing are not appropriate in this new environment. Research in online retailing operations is still maturing, so it’s an exciting time to study and solve these kinds of practice-driven problems.”

The Dantzig Award is given for the best dissertation in any area of operations research and the management sciences that is innovative and relevant to practice. “This is the top internationally recognized award for beginning scholars in this field,” said Russell Barton, senior associate dean for research and faculty. “The competition is stiff, and the award speaks highly to Jason’s research as well as his writing and presentation talent.”

“This is the top internationally recognized award for beginning scholars in this field. The competition is stiff, and the award speaks highly to Jason’s research as well as his writing and presentation talent.”
~ Russell Barton, senior associate dean for research and faculty

Acimovic’s research interests include applied operations, online retailing supply chains, and humanitarian logistics. He received his doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Operations Research Center and also holds a degree in physics from Yale University. He joined the Smeal faculty in 2012. His dissertation was also selected to receive the 2013 Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals Doctoral Dissertation Award.

Acimovic received the Dantzig award at the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) Annual Meeting, held earlier this month in Minneapolis, Minn.

Smeal offers highly regarded supply chain programs at every educational level and is ranked No. 1 in the nation for undergraduate and graduate supply chain education according to Gartner, Inc.

INFORMS is the largest professional society in the world.