Professor Emeritus of Industrial and Systems Engineering Gerald Nadler was awarded the Faculty Lifetime Achievement award at the USC's 29th Annual Academic Honors Convocation, held at Town and Gown. The Award is granted each year to a very few outstanding retired faculty members on the basis of "their notable contributions to the university, their profession and community."
Nadler displays plaque with wife Elaine and ISE Department Chair Jim Moore.
Nadler accepts plaque from Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs Martin Levine.
Honorees are selected by a committee appointed by the Provost. The award places special emphasis on teaching, research, publications, university service, community/government service, contributions to professional organizations, and professional awards and recognition.
A recipient of one of the two such awards for 2010, Gerald Nadler is a worldwide leader in industrial and systems engineering who has made key contributions in multidisciplinary system planning and design methodologies, and in the teaching of technological literacy to non-engineering students. His achievements as a pioneering scholar and educator in his field have earned him membership in the National Academy of Engineering and selection as a Fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Society of Engineering Education, and several others.
Prolific as a scholar and prescient in his interdisciplinary approach, Professor Nadler has authored more than 225 published articles and 15 books. He has delivered more than 900 invited presentations around the world. In examining the processes used by successful managers and designers, he introduced the concept of breakthrough thinking as a way to design, develop, and improve systems and organizations. One of his books, Breakthrough Thinking: Why We Must Change the Way we Solve Problems, and the Seven Principles to Achieve This, has been translated into 10 languages.
A mainstay in the life of the Viterbi School’s Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, which he chaired from 1983 to 1993, he was instrumental in its reinvigoration and rising stature. He also directed USC’s Center on the Management of Engineering, Research, and Innovation in Technology.
"Gerald Nadler has been a fabulously productive member of USC’s intellectual community,” said Epstein ISE Department Chair James Moore, “and of every community that has been fortunate enough to claim him as a member. He is still contributing: Few faculty members anywhere have demonstrated the level of relentless dedication to scholarship and the life of the mind that Professor Nadler continues to deliver. His contributions have been very important to the ascent of the Epstein ISE Department, the Viterbi School of Engineering, the University of Southern California, and to the field of Industrial and Systems Engineering. He is profoundly deserving of the recognition provided by USC's Faculty Lifetime Achievement Award."
Nadler has earned the USC Phi Kappa Phi Faculty Recognition Award, the Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award from Purdue University, and the Frank and Lillian Gilbreth Industrial Engineering Award from the Institute of Industrial Engineers, of which he is a Fellow.
The Nadler family Convocation party. (clockwise from left foreground) Robert Nadler, Deborah Nadler, Barbara Sard, Burton Nadler, Gerald and Elaine Nadler, Janice Cutler, Stuart Cutler, Professor Stan Settlees, Carly Yartz, Douglas Tartz.
