PhD
Brian Reed (PhD '23)
Quantifying and understanding. Brian discusses the value of multi-disciplinary work and how he has combined economics, computer science, and the natural sciences with MS&E to quantify the threats of extreme temperatures and flooding on the economic risks and prospects for companies in various industries, and how an understanding of these can inform mitigation efforts as well as create a competitive advantage.
Isabelle Rao (PhD '23)
Impact and Meaning. Isabelle shares how her work examining major healthcare issues such as equitable vaccine allocation and the opioid epidemic from an operations research lens has been able to have an impact in decision making and policy development, and how she takes meaning from knowing how many lives can be saved. She also discusses her journey from childhood hours spent in her dads office at a major university to her continuing research career in academia.
Giovanni Malloy (PhD '22)
Giovanni explains how his early experiences in computer science and math paved the way for his interest in engineering. That path led him to study infectious disease outbreaks as an undergraduate, which in turn positioned him to be at the forefront of COVID-19 research when the pandemic began. Giovanni also shares advice for current students and how he found work/life balance as a PhD student at Stanford.
Hannah Li (PhD '22)
Hannah shares how her desire to create impact for large numbers of people led her to study operations research. She describes her research on eliminating bias in algorithms driven by artificial intelligence, how she blends the study of technical systems with the study of the people involved with those systems, and her plans to continue in academia as a professor at Columbia Business School.
Anneke Claypool (PhD '21)
Anneke shares how serving in the Peace Corps teaching high school mathematics led to her area research. While teaching overseas, she noticed healthcare problems, such as Malaria, directly affecting her students' attendance. After that experience, she decided to apply her mathematics background to the healthcare system. Anneke's research focuses on infectious disease modeling and policies while incorporating cost-effective analysis. Anneke also shares stories about her time at Stanford and her plans for the future.
Wanyi Li (PhD '21)
Wanyi shares how listening to an episode of the Freakonomics podcast series featuring Al Roth led her to pursue a PhD in MS&E. Wanyi came to Stanford to study operations research focused on economic systems and environmental sustainability. While at Stanford, she started asking questions about how governments and nonprofits incentivized people to protect and conserve the environment. Wanyi also shares stories about her time at Stanford and her plans for the future.
Eric Volmar (PhD '21)
Eric shares with us his research on mission-driven organizations, and how entrepreneurs can be successful while doing good for society. He also shares stories about his time at Stanford and in the MS&E program.
Robert Bremner (PhD '20)
Rob shares with us his research focus in Organization and Strategy, and he takes us in-depth into his research where he studied how to improve the innovation process, particularly in the gaming industry. He also shares stories about his time at Stanford and in the MS&E program.
Ali Shameli (PhD '20)
Ali’s research focus is in the area of Operation Research. He helps define his research area and how it has extended beyond MS&E with collaboration in the CS and Econ departments at Stanford. He shares his thought process for choosing the MS&E program and describes it as being the perfect blend between theory and application.
Travis Trammell III (PhD '20)
Travis shares with us his research focus in Decision Risk Analysis, and what led him to his research topic for his dissertation. Travis leads us in-depth into his research where he studied fake news by using the quantitative method to examine it’s spread on online platforms, as well as potential counters that both government and industry could use in an effort to stop the spread of disinformation. Travis also shares the impact and stories about his time at Stanford and in the MS&E program.

Heiko Pieper
"It's the ability to predict early-on whether something will be successful and not wasting time on unsuccessful things. Those are the type of things that I learned while pursuing my PhD, which have helped me throughout the course of my career."
Q&A with Heiko
Peter Haas
Peter Haas has led a storied career that is deeply intertwined with Stanford, both as a former student and as an Adjunct Professor in Management Science and Engineering.
Read Peter's spotlight