Management Science and Engineering - Stanford University

08/19/2026

Congratulations are in order! MS&E alum Ali Abbas (PhD '04, MS '02) has received the 2026 Frank P. Ramsey Medal, the highest honor from the INFORMS Decision Analysis Society.

Now a professor of industrial and systems engineering at USC, Abbas's research has influenced engineering design and public policy, and his textbooks have shaped students of the field.

Learn more about the Ramsey Medal and Professor Abbas's career: https://msande.stanford.edu/news/ali-abbas-receives-2026-frank-p-ramsey-medal

Abbas (PhD '04, MS '02) won the Frank P. Ramsey Medal for decades of research that has helped shape how people make complex decisions.

08/18/2026

Stanford University’s Precourt Institute for Energy and its research programs awarded more than $6 million for 52 new energy research projects across the university over the past year.

Two of those projects include MS&E faculty members:

"Data center deliberation: Streamlining development with AI-driven stakeholder engagement" utilizes Professor Ashish Goel's expertise in deliberation techniques to gather public input on data center regulations.

"Design, pricing, and operation of highway express lane systems" draws on Professor Ramesh Johari's expertise in market design to optimize how express lanes are built.

Learn more about the research that aims to make energy sustainable, affordable, and secure: https://energy.stanford.edu/news/precourt-institute-funds-52-projects-sustainable-energy-research

See a list of all the research projects: https://energy.stanford.edu/2025-26-precourt-52-funded-projects-summary

$6.3 million for new projects in the past year covers the breadth of energy challenges, from sustainably powering AI and industrial decarbonization to renewable fuels and energy security.

08/13/2026

Many people deploy AI agents with the expectation that they will decrease the amount of time spent on menial tasks and free up time for bigger challenges. But some are finding the agents essentially create a second job: Managing the agent.

Learn more from MS&E alums Rebecca Hinds (PhD '22, MS '14, BS '13) and Paul Leonardi (PhD '07):

https://hbr.org/2026/08/how-much-time-do-your-employees-spend-botsitting

AI promises to reduce workloads and improve organizational performance, but its benefits often come with a hidden cost: “botsitting,” the work employees do to make AI useful, from supplying context and checking outputs to correcting errors. Research shows that workers spend nearly a day a week o...

07/30/2026

It is with heavy hearts we share that David G. Luenberger, a professor emeritus of management science and engineering whose textbooks shaped generations of engineers, economists, and financial professionals, died at his home on May 19, 2026. He was 88.

A memorial service for Professor Luenberger will be held on August 30, 2026. Learn more and celebrate his life and career below:

Luenberger’s doctoral research gave rise to a technique that aerospace and robotics engineers still use to track the hidden behavior of complex systems.

07/23/2026

Increasingly, researchers and others are using AI to improve energy production and use. At the second annual symposium of the Stanford Energy Postdoctoral Fellowship, MS&E postdoctoral fellow Nico Christianson described his research developing AI-based methods to help utilities and large energy consumers better manage risk in the selling and buying of electricity.

Learn more about Nico's work and more from the symposium: https://energypostdoc.stanford.edu/news/so-many-opportunities-so-little-time

Prominent energy researchers inspire, challenge, and propel those early in their careers, discussing possible pathways to solving sustainable energy’s biggest puzzles at a Stanford symposium.

07/20/2026

Four MS&E PhD students were awarded fellowships from the Vice Provost for Graduate Education (VPGE)—congratulations to Enrica Archetti, Christopher Flowers, Varun Gande, and Annika Younge!

Learn more: https://msande.stanford.edu/news/four-mse-phd-students-receive-vpge-fellowships

Supported by endowment and general funds, VPGE fellowships are designed to attract the most talented students to Stanford's doctoral programs and to honor and support our most outstanding current doctoral students.

07/16/2026

The MS&E Newsletter is here! In this issue, learn about how AI research is evolving in the department, as well as our latest research & impact, community updates, awards, and more:

https://msande.stanford.edu/get-involved/newsletters

06/30/2026

Congratulations to Professor Margaret Brandeau and alum Isabelle Rao (PhD '23) for receiving the 8th Annual Tufts-CEVR's Cost-Effectiveness Paper of the Year Award!

The honor, presented by the Center for the Evaluation of Value and Risk in Health (CEVR) at Tufts Medical Center, is awarded based on the high methodological quality of the analysis, timeliness and importance of the topic, and potential influence of the study's findings on policy making.

Their winning paper, "Modeling health and economic outcomes of providing stable housing to homeless adults with opioid use disorder," assessed the cost-effectiveness of providing stable housing to people experiencing homelessness who have opioid use disorder (OUD), compared to the status quo of no housing in the United States.

Find a link to their paper, and an article in the Stanford Report, on the MS&E site: https://msande.stanford.edu/news/margaret-brandeau-isabelle-rao-receive-cost-effectiveness-paper-year-award

06/17/2026

According to MS&E Professor Chuck Eesley, the future of AI innovation depends on more than choosing between government support and market freedom.

Learn more in his World Economic Forum article: https://www.weforum.org/stories/2026/06/research-ai-innovation-beyond-market-freedom-versus-state-funding/

Economies that want to boost AI innovation should strengthen institutional layers, rather than working out a state input versus market freedom balance.

06/15/2026

At ICME's 2026 Research Symposium, researchers, industry leaders, faculty, and students examined how AI is transforming scientific discovery and engineering.

Presenters included MS&E faculty Vasilis Syrgkanis and Renyuan Xu, as well as multiple MS&E PhD students who presented posters.

Learn more: https://icme.stanford.edu/news/icme-research-symposium-2026-ai-science-and-engineering

ICME hosted its annual Research Symposium, bringing together researchers, industry leaders, national laboratory scientists, faculty, and students to examine how AI is transforming scientific discovery and engineering.