Soroush Saghafian
Soroush Saghafian, MS, PhD, Associate Professor of Public Policy (Management, Leadership, and Decision Making), is interested in using and developing operations research, management science, and operations management techniques that can have significant public benefits. He is the founder and director of the Public Impact Analytics Science Lab (PIAS-Lab) at Harvard, which is devoted to advancing and applying the science of analytics for solving societal problems that can have public impact. His current teaching focuses on Machine Learning and Big Data Analytics tools for solving societal problems. He has been collaborating with a variety of hospitals to improve their operational efficiency, patient flow, medical decision-making, and more broadly, healthcare delivery policies. He also serves as a core faculty member for the Harvard Center for Health Decision Science, a faculty affiliate for the Harvard Ph.D. Program in Health Policy, the Harvard Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government (M-RCBG), the Harvard Data Science Initiative, the Harvard Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, the Harvard Center for Public Leadership, is an associate faculty member at the Harvard Ariadne Labs (Health Systems Innovation), and a holds a collaboration appointment at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).
Selected Media Coverage:
Dr. Saghafian’s research has appeared in the news, including in pieces and interviews by PBS News, NBC News, Fast Company, Euronews, The Hill, National Academy of Medicine, Harvard Crimson, New-Meical.net, Industry Global News 24, Global Health News Wire, Eureka Alert (American Association for the Advancement of Science), Medscape, Medical Xpress, Managed Healthcare Executive, DOTmed, ABC Channel (TV), and INFORMS.
Selected Awards:
He has won various awards for his research, including the INFORMS MSOM 2023 Responsible Research Award (second place) “[for] contributing knowledge that may have implications for making the world a better place by informing evidence-based, high-quality, and societally beneficial organizational practices across the business, government, and non-government organizations,” INFORMS MSOM Young Scholar Prize (2021) “[for] outstanding contributions to scholarship in operations management,” Inaugural INFORMS 2020 Mehrotra Research Excellence Award “for significant contributions to the practice of health applications through operations research (OR) and management science (MS) modeling and methodologies,” INFORMS 2018 Public Sector Best Paper Award (second place), and 2010 INFORMS Pierskalla Award “for the best research paper in healthcare.”