Meet the Keynote Speakers
Dr. Tina Comes
TU Delft
Dr. Tina Comes is Full Professor on Decision Theory & Information Technology for Resilience in the Department of Engineering Systems and Services at the TU Delft, Netherlands, and Full Professor in Decision-Making & Digitalisation at the University of Maastricht. Dr. Comes is a Visiting Professor at the Université Dauphine, France, and a member of the Norwegian Academy for Technological Sciences. She serves as the Scientific Director of the 4TU.Centre for Resilience Engineering, as Principle Investigator on Climate Resilience for AMS, as Director of the TPM Resilience Lab, and she leads the Disaster Resilience theme for the Delft Global Initiative. She is advising the European Commission as the Chair of the SAPEA Working Group on the Future of Strategic Crisis Management in Europe.
Since her PhD on distributed decisions from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany), Prof. Comes’ research focuses on decision-making and information technology for resilience and disaster management. Solidly rooted in this direction, she conducts research on using information and smart technology for better decisions and coordination in complex, volatile and uncertain environments. Grounded in this orientation, she has conducted research with stakeholders and decision-makers in private companies, public authorities and international organizations. This perspective on decision making, resilience and humanitarian response is reflected in more than 100 publications.
Dr. Julie Ivy
Dr Ivy is a Professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering and Fitts Faculty Fellow in Health Systems Engineering at NCSU. She previously spent several years on the faculty of the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. She received her B.S. and Ph.D. in Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan. She also received her M.S. in Industrial and Systems Engineering with a focus on Operations Research at Georgia Tech. She is a President of the Health Systems Engineering Alliance (HSEA) Board of Directors. Dr. Ivy served as the 2007 Chair (President) of the INFORMS Health Applications Society and the 2012 – 13 President for the INFORMS Minority Issues Forum. Her research interests are mathematical modeling of stochastic dynamic systems with an emphasis on statistics and decision analysis as applied to health care, public health, and humanitarian logistics. This research has made an impact on how researchers and practitioners address complex societal issues, such as health disparities, public health preparedness, hunger relief, student performance, and personalized medical decision-making and has been funded by CDC, NSF, Clinton Health Access Initiative, and the UNC Cancer Center.
North Carolina State University
Dr. Igor Linkov
US Army Corps of Engineers
Dr. Igor Linkov is a Senior Scientific and Technical Manager (SSTM) with the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), and Adjunct Professor with Carnegie Mellon University. He is responsible for ERDC’s project portfolio in the areas of crises management and resilience. He develops methods and tools for measuring risk and resilience in interconnected network and applies these tools to critical infrastructure, transportation, energy and cyber systems, supply chains and currently to manage response and recovery following COVID pandemic. He has published twenty five books and over 400 peer-reviewed paper. s and book chapters in top journals, like Nature, Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Climate He received multiple awards, including 2020 Arthur Flemming Award for outstanding public service and was selected as the Top DOD Laboratory Scientist in 2020.
Dr. Mijic is a Senior Lecturer in Water Systems Integration and a Co-Director of the Centre for Systems Engineering and Innovation. She is leading the development of novel systems tools focused on quantifying the interaction between the water cycle and sustainable development. Dr. Mijic has worked with the UK Environment Agency to apply systems thinking and systemic approaches to understanding the catchment water system complexity of the Cumbria Catchment Pioneer. She has also led the UK NERC CHANSE project on systems water management and irrigation water use in India. Dr. Mijic was awarded the 2019 Imperial President’s Award for Excellence in Research for Outstanding Research Team.
Imperial College London
Dr. Ana Mijic
Dr. Masaru Nakano
Keio University
Dr. Nakano is a Professor Emeritus in the Graduate School of System Design and Management at Keio University. He was formerly a researcher at the Toyota Center R&D Laboratories. Dr. Nakano's research specialties include manufacturing systems design, business process design, and sustainable society design. He has been a collaborator in joint research between Japan, the US, and Europe, and is the author of Systems Approach for Business Engineering and How Has the Toyota Production System Evolved Around the World? Japan's Manufacturing Is Lagging Behind.