Edward Kaplan, PhD

Edward H. Kaplan obtained his BA from McGill University with First Class Honors in Economic and Urban Geography, and proceeded to graduate study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he completed three masters’ degrees (in Operations Research, City Planning, and Mathematics) in addition to his doctorate in Urban Studies. He currently serves as the William N. and Marie A. Beach Professor of Management Sciences at the Yale School of Management, Professor of Public Health at the Yale School of Medicine, and Professor of Engineering in the Yale School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. An elected member of both the National Academy of Engineering (2003) and the Institute of Medicine (2004), Kaplan is an expert in operations research, mathematical modeling and statistics who studies problems in public policy and management. His recent research has focused on counterterror topics such as the tactical prevention of suicide bombings, bioterror preparedness, and response logistics in the event of a smallpox or anthrax attack. His work on smallpox was awarded the 2003 Koopman Prize of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) Military Applications Society, while his models evaluating suicide-bomber-detector schemes received the same award in 2005. Kaplan serves on the National Academy of Sciences panel on basic research to improve intelligence analysis, and co-directs the Daniel Rose Technion-Yale Initiative in Homeland Security and Counter Terror Operations Research. Kaplan has also conducted award-winning research that evaluates the effectiveness of HIV prevention programs while developing new mathematical models for the study of HIV transmission, prevention, and resource allocation. His empirical and modeling research demonstrating the effectiveness of New Haven’s needle exchange program remains among the most creative and important examples of HIV prevention program evaluation to date. Honors for his HIV-related research include induction into the Omega Rho operations research honor society in 2000, the 2002 INFORMS President’s Award recognizing work that advances the welfare of society, the 1997 Ira Hiscock Award of the Connecticut Public Health Association, the 1994 Lanchester Prize for the best publications in the operations research literature, the 1992 Franz Edelman Award for management science achievement, the 1991 State of Connecticut Health Department’s AIDS Leadership Award, the 2009 Charles C. Shepard Science Award from the Centers for Disease Control, and the INFORMS Philip Morse Lectureship for 2010-11. Kaplan served twice as the Lady Davis Visiting Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem—in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine in 1994, and in the Department of Statistics in 1997 -- and is also an elected member of the Board of Governors of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. For all of his contributions to the operations research profession, Kaplan was designated an INFORMS Fellow in November 2005.