Özalp Özer

Özalp Özer, as an executive leader at Amazon, is helping build the science required to manage and optimize Amazon's core supply chain. He leads a multidisciplinary team of product managers and scientists —spanning economists, operations researchers, data scientists, statisticians, and AI/ML experts—to develop and deploy optimization algorithms, decision and prediction models for Fulfillment By Amazon. With his team, Özalp innovates science-driven solutions for key systems, such as seller assistant and recommendation systems to help sellers grow their business, and internal resource management and control systems (e.g., inbound, transportation, and storage) to increase speed of delivery while reducing cost to serve, and voice of seller systems to enhance seller experience and trust. He is also actively involved in the design of economic systems to foster third-party seller growth on and off Amazon. Özalp is currently leading the scientific initiatives behind Supply Chain by Amazon (SCA) business. Examples of products he built together with fellow Amazonians can be found in these links [1], [2], [3], [4], [5].

Özalp is also a chaired Professor of Management Science, and previously served as a faculty member at University of Texas at Dallas, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia University, and Stanford University. His areas of specialty include end-to-end management and coordination of global value chains, entrepreneurship and innovation, strategic investment decisions, capacity and inventory planning, market timing, distribution channel management, procurement contract design, and retail and pricing management. He has extensively published papers that illustrate how he and his co-authors use methodological tools from Operations Research, Economics, Statistics, Machine Learning and Management Science to solve high-impact business problems. He refers to this tool set as Genuine Intelligence (GI). Besides scuba diving, he is passionate about working with researchers and practitioners on the next new 'think' that calls for the exciting opportunity to explore, learn, and contribute.

Özalp is also recipient of prestigious research and teaching awards, such as the George and Fonsa Brody Professorship and Ashbel Smith Professorship from UT system, the Wickham Skinner Early-Career Research Accomplishment Award from POM Society, the Hellman faculty fellowship, and the Terman faculty fellowship from Stanford. He was named as a Favorite Professor by Poets & Quants and Top Executive MBA program students, and he has received teaching awards from MIT in 2014, from Columbia in 2009 and the Eugene Grant Teaching Award from Stanford in 2004 and 2003 by vote of students. Özalp is also an editor of The Oxford Handbook of Pricing Management published by OUP in 2012. His articles have appeared in journals such as Management Science, and Operations Research. He is currently serving as an associate editor for Management Science, M&SOM, Operations Research, and Production and Operations Management. He is an active consultant to industry and has consulted companies such as General Motors, Hewlett Packard, Hitachi GST, IBM, Neiman Marcus and University Hospitals of Cleveland. He received his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees from Columbia University.

• Ph.D., Operations Research, Columbia University
• M.S., Operations Research, Columbia University
• B.S., Industrial Engineering, Bilkent University

• Amazon, Inc.
  • Director of Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) Science & Innovation, 2021 - Present
  • Senior Principal Scientist, 2020 - 2021
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management
  • Visiting Professor, 2023 - Present
  • Visiting Professor, 2013 - 2014
• (On leave) The University of Texas at Dallas, Jindal School of Management
  • George and Fonsa Brody Professor, 2018 - Present
  • Ashbel Smith Professor, 2014 - 2018
  • Professor, 2012 - present
  • Associate Professor, 2009 -2012
  • Director of Ph.D. program, 2010 - 2016
• Columbia University, Industrial Engineering and Operations Research
  • Associate Professor, 2008 -2009
• Stanford University, Management Science and Engineering
  • Consulting Associate Professor, 2007 - 2010
  • Assistant Professor, 2000 - 2007
  • Affiliated Faculty, Stanford Global Supply Chain Management Forum, 2000-present

• College of Healthcare Operations Management (CHOM) Best Paper Award (1st Place), 2021
• Conferance on Health IT and Analytics (CHITA) Best Paper Award (Runner-up), 2018
• National Science Foundation (NSF) Grants, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2009, 2006
• Tutorial Lectures at INFORMS and POMS, 2017, 2016, 2012, 2011
• Nominated for the UT System wide Regents' Outstanding Teaching Award, 2017
• Named as a Favorite Professor by Top Executive MBA program students (PoetsandQuants.com), 2015
• Management Science Best Paper Award, 2014
• MIT Sloan School of Management Recognition for Outstanding Teaching, (MIT-Sloan Dean's Letter), 2014
• Behavioral Operations Management Society Best Paper Award (Runner-up), 2013
• Management Science Meritorious Service Award, 2013
• MS&OM Meritorious Service Award, 2012, 2013
• Recognition for Teaching Excellence, Columbia University (based on student evaluations), 2009
• Hellman Faculty Fellow, Stanford University, 2005
• Wickham Skinner Early-Career Research Accomplishment Award, 2004
• Eugene L. Grant for Excellence in Teaching, Stanford University (by student vote), 2004
• Undergraduate Student Teaching Award, Stanford University (by student vote), 2003
• David T. Morgenthaler II Faculty Fellow, 2001

• Department Editor for Service Science, 2019 - 2023
• Associate Editor for Management Science, 2009 - present
• Associate Editor for Operations Research, 2007- 2019
• Senior Editor for Production and Operations Management, 2003 - present
• Associate Editor for Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 2010 - present
• Associate Editor for Naval Research Logistics, 2018 - present
• Associate Editor for International Journal of Inventory Research, 2006 - 2013
• Advisory Member of National Science Foundation, Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences, 2013 - 2016
• Chair of the Supply Chain Management SIG at INFORMS, 2013 - 2015
• Secretary and Board Member of the Production and Operations Management Society, 2008 - 2011
• Editorial Board Member for Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 2001-2006
• Associate Editor for Flexible Services and Manufacturing Journal, 2008 - 2011