Bio

Laura A. Albert, Ph.D., is the Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs & Development in the College of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she is the Keith and Jane Morgan Nosbusch Professor and a Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Industrial & Systems Engineering. Her expertise lies in the application of operations research methodologies to problems in security, public safety, critical infrastructure protection, and election resilience. Her seminal work on aviation security provided the technical validation for risk-based screening and served as the model for TSA PreCheck, an achievement recognized with the INFORMS Impact Prize. She has published more than 100 articles in academic journals and conference proceedings. As a thought leader in her field, Prof. Albert recently co-authored the paper “Grand challenges in industrial and systems engineering,” which identifies eight overarching grand challenges for the field and “A Roadmap for Making Operations Research More Accessible: Insights from the Rise of Machine Learning,” which proposes a roadmap to make operations research more accessible, visible, and impactful.

Prof. Albert’s professional and academic achievements have earned her significant recognition. She is an elected Fellow of three societies: the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), and the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE). Her research has been honored with a Fulbright Award, a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award, the INFORMS Impact Prize, an Army Young Investigator Award, the IISE George L. Smith International Award for Excellence in Promotion of Industrial Engineering, and the UW-Madison Kellett Mid-Career Award. As a sought-after speaker, she has delivered more than 30 keynote addresses and distinguished talks at events worldwide.

Prof. Albert is a recognized leader in the global operations research and industrial and systems engineering communities. She served as the 2023 President of the INFORMS, the largest professional society in her field with more than 12,000 members. In this role, she provided strategic leadership and championed advocacy efforts for AI policy, data literacy, and visibility for the profession. She is a dedicated ambassador for her field, committed to broadening participation in engineering. She spearheaded the founding of Industrial and Systems Engineering Day to increase awareness of industrial engineering, celebrated annually on September 14.

From 2021-24, Prof. Albert served as the David H. Gustafson Department Chair of Industrial & Systems Engineering. Under her leadership, the department saw remarkable growth, including a rise in its U.S. News & World Report graduate program rankings to 6^th nationwide, a significant increase in faculty research expenditures, increased revenue from diverse educational sources, its first increase in undergraduate enrollment after six straight years of decline, numerous faculty accolades, and enhanced scholarly output, including a 1^st place ranking in the Scholarly Research Index. Prof. Albert also served as the inaugural Assistant Dean for Graduate Affairs for the UW-Madison College of Engineering from 2017 to 2019, where she established evidence-based programs to enhance the graduate student experience, including an annual assessment program for graduate students.

Prof. Albert is a prominent voice in public engagement. She is a frequent contributor to national conversations, having published 11 op-eds in national outlets and made over 100 media appearances. She is the author of two popular engineering blogs, “Punk Rock Operations Research” and “Badger Bracketology,” which together have reached approximately one million readers by making complex topics in engineering data analytics and optimization accessible to a broad audience.

Connect with Laura on LinkedIn.

For inquiries on speaking engagements, email Laura Albert.

CV

Professor Laura Albert’s cv is here.

Links

Laura’s homepage at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is here.

Find Laura on LinkedIn, Google Scholar, and ResearchGate, and ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7079-4473 and SCOPUS: 9334925000