Keynote Speaker

• The University of Chicago, Booth School of Business

Burhaneddin Sandikci has been on the faculty of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business since 2008. A native of Turkey, he earned a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering from Marmara University. He received two master's degrees: one in industrial engineering from Bilkent University and one in operations research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He earned a PhD in industrial engineering from the University of Pittsburgh prior to joining Chicago Booth.

His research interests span decision-making problems under uncertainty with particular focus on problems in medical decision-making and healthcare operations. He specializes in decision-analytic aspects of organ transplantation systems. He combines his expertise in data analytics and operations research in solving practically relevant complex problems in health care. He emphasizes rigorous and data-based research, and uses state of the art large databases to build detailed computer simulations to complement his theoretical models. His research collaborations have resulted in 30+ papers including those that are been published in leading academic journals such as Operations Research, Management Science, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Mathematical Programming, SIAM Journal on Optimization, Hepatology, and American Journal of Transplantation. He serves as an Associate Editor for the journal Health Care Management Science.

• Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia

Professor Sardar M. N. Islam is Professor of Business, Economics and Finance; and Director, Decision Sciences & Modelling Program, Victoria University, Australia. He has also been appointed as a Visiting Professor of Management Science. One of the areas of Professor Islam’s specialisations is Applied Managements Science/ applied quantitative modelling. He is currently undertaking research, teaching and doctorate supervision work in Applied Management Science addressing issues in a wide range of disciplines in accounting, economics, finance, business, and law. He has published 21 finance, accounting, business, economics and law research books. Each of these books makes significant secular scientific contributions to the literature and most of these books are published by very prestigious publishers in their highly regarded book series. Many university libraries around the world including all top universities such as Harvard, Cambridge, etc. have many of his books. He has published many articles including journal articles in international journals (including 3 A*, 15 A, 19 B & 16 C grade journal articles and a good number of articles in other indexed and reputed journals) such as the following leading journals: Journal of Optimisation Theory and Applications, Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Economic Modelling, and Journal of Policy Modelling. He is the Principal Supervisor of a big group of doctoral (PhD and DBA) students in Management Science addressing issues in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Supply Chain Management/Applied Industrial engineering, and Business. He has successfully completed a good number of doctoral (PhD and DBA) students, many of these students have done very well in their careers. He has been actively involved in teaching (full subject) or guest lecturing for different DBA subjects at Victoria University since 1995.