USC Viterbi School of Engineering Dean Yannis C. Yortsos has announced the appointment of Julie Higle as chair of the school’s Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. The appointment, effective January 1, 2012, has an expected term of three and a half years.
Higle comes to USC from The Ohio State University where she served as chair of the Integrated Systems Engineering Department for more than five years. Previously, she was professor of Systems and Industrial Engineering at the University of Arizona where she began her career after earning her Ph.D. in Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Julie Higle became chair of the Epstein Department effective January 1, 2012.
Her research interests inlcude developing stochastic programming models and algorithmic methods for decision making under uncertainty, with a recent focus in the area of stochastic modeling for health care applications. She serves on the editorial board of Operations Research Letters and is Senior Vice President for Academics for the Institute of Industrial Engineers, the largest professional society in the field.
Higle succeeds Stan Settles, who has served as department chair since July 2010.
“I am grateful to Stan for his leadership during the interim time period he chaired the department and for his leadership,” said Yortsos. “I am looking forward to working closely with Julie to advance the department to yet another level of excellence."
In 2002 San Diego real estate manager, developer, entrepreneur and alumnus (BSISE, '62) Daniel J. Epstein donated $11 million to name the department where he studied.
Epstein Department undergraduate degrees prepare students for work in engineering practice, technology commerce, related professional activities or serve as the intellectual foundation for further graduate or professional study. Faculty work in a wide range of areas, including industrial logistics, decision making and risk analysis, pattern recognition and health informatics. The graduate program in Systems Architecting and Engineering is a unique, nationally prominent collaboration with industry and other universities.
