Northwestern engineering professor to give Pritsker lecture

Barry L. Nelson, the Walter P. Murphy professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences at Northwestern University, will speak on Thursday (April 19) in the Pritsker Scholars Distinguished Lecture Series, presented by the School of Industrial Engineering.

The talk, titled “Selecting the Best Simulated System: Thinking Differently About an Old Problem and Alan Pritsker’s Influence,” will focus on introducing and demonstrating the statistical methodologies of ranking and selection. It will take place at 1:30 p.m. in the Wilmeth Active Learning Center, Room 1018, and is free and open to the public. A reception will follow in Grissom Hall’s Peter Wang Student Excellence Center.

The lecture series is named for Alan Pritsker, an industrial engineering professor who made major contributions to industrial engineering. As a leader in computer simulation, he was pivotal in building the School of Industrial Engineering’s reputation and helping it become a front-runner in research and thought leadership. Pritsker was on the Purdue faculty from 1970 to 1998.

Nelson’s research focuses on the design and analysis of computer simulation experiments. He graduated from Purdue in 1983 with a doctoral degree in industrial engineering. During his time at Purdue, Nelson took his first simulation course with Pritsker. He has now published over 100 research papers and three books and is a fellow of the Institute of Operations Research and the Management Sciences and the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers. 

Writer: Olivia Crouse, ocrouse@purdue.edu