Abstract
Jan Van Mieghem (born August 23, 1966) received his bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium in 1989. He received his master's in Electrical Engineering and PhD degree in Operations Management from Stanford University in 1991 and 1995, respectively. He has been a faculty member of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University since 1995.
Van Mieghem has made fundamental contributions to the fields of manufacturing, service and supply chain operations, both from a strategic and tactical perspective. In manufacturing, his work has studied capacity investment, design of processing networks, the use of suitable type and amount of flexibility, risk mitigation and the role of operational hedging. In service operations he has studied the role of collaboration and multi‐tasking with a more recent focus on health care operations. In supply chain operations, he has done extensive work on the role of subcontracting, incentives, pricing, and dual sourcing. A key characteristic of his research has been the use of technical sophistication to draw important managerial insights. His research has had a significant impact that has been recognized through a large number of awards. His papers have received the 2014 Wickham Skinner award for best paper published in POM, the 2014 POMS College of healthcare operations management best paper award, and the 2007 MSOM best paper award. The quality and impact of his overall research contribution was recognized when he was honored with the Distinguished Fellow award by MSOM in 2012 “for his development of the generalized c‐mu rule and contributions to our understanding of the role of capacity and flexibility in networks.” He was also elected to membership of the Royal Flemish Academy of Sciences and Arts of Belgium in 2015.
Van Mieghem has also made important pedagogical contributions to operations management. He has (co)‐authored two influential textbooks and written a large number of cases. Managing Business Process Flows provided a first, unified perspective at the major analysis and decisions in operations management by adopting a “process view” and consistent notation throughout the book. It is used as the introductory operations management course text at institutions throughout the world. Van Mieghem's second textbook on Operations Strategy provided a unified framework for this important course that was lacking until then. He has also written over 20 cases to support the two courses. More recently he has taken one of his courses online offering a MOOC that was joined by over 16,000 learners.
Van Mieghem has provided important service to his field and institution: He has served as Area Editor of Operations Research and Associate Editor of Management Science. He continues as AE of Manufacturing & Service Operations Management and Production and Operations Management. He is also on the editorial board of Review of Business and Economics. At the Kellogg School he has served as department chair and senior associate dean (2009‐2010).
