I’m pleased to announce that Ahmed Abbasi, the Joe and Jane Giovanini Professor of IT, Analytics, and Operations, will be the speaker for the next University Chair Public Lecture on May 1. His talk in the Jordan Auditorium will start at 3 p.m. and will be followed by a reception. You should have received a calendar invite for his talk. I hope you can attend.

The University Chair Public Lecture Series was launched in fall 2023 to recognize the importance of the research contributions of our faculty. The series features Mendoza faculty who have been designated as University chairs – Notre Dame’s highest recognition of the impact of a faculty member’s research. The event is an opportunity to hear about their work and career, and to celebrate together how we are growing the good in business to contribute to human flourishing. (You can view the inaugural University Chair Public Lecture by Mike Crant here.)

Ahmed is the co-director of the Human-centered Analytics Lab (HAL), which seeks to better understand the human condition in the context of digital lives. He also serves as the academic director of the Ph.D. Program in Analytics. His research interests are related to text and predictive analytics, and include subjects such as the ethical use of generative AI. A prolific researcher with more than 9,300 citations, he has published more than 100 articles in journals and conferences, including over 40 articles in top-tier outlets such as MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, Journal of Marketing, IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, and ACM Transactions on Information Systems.

Ahmed’s research has received over a dozen individual and best paper awards. Recent research themes include analytics for social good, the role of AI in supporting public health, and the use of fair machine learning to better understand the human condition for enhanced decision making and policy outcomes. Ahmed also has generously served the profession in his roles as senior or associate editor for top journals such as INFORMS, ACM, IEEE, and AIS, having authored over 350 editorial reports and guest-edited special issues on various AI-related topics such as the role of the institutional press in the digital age, disaster response management, healthcare analytics, and trustworthy AI.   

His work has been funded by more than 15 grants from the National Science Foundation and industry partners such as Microsoft, eBay, Deloitte, and Oracle. Ahmed is a recipient of the IEEE Technical Achievement Award, INFORMS Design Science Award, and IBM Faculty Award. He also served as chair of the INFORMS College on AI. 

The inaugural University Chair Public Lecture by Mike Crant was a wonderful event, and I look forward to hearing from Ahmed. Please join us.

In Notre Dame,

Martijn