The Lehigh ISE Department is pleased to announce that Professor Mingzhou Jin, will give the Spencer C. Schantz Distinguished Public Lecture “Industrial Engineering for the Design and Improvement of Systems with Societal Significance” on Thursday, April 23, 2026, from 4:15 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. in Mohler Laboratory room 355, 200 West Packer Avenue, Bethlehem, PA.
The Lehigh ISE Award Ceremony honoring ISE students, faculty, and staff will follow immediately after the lecture (5:00 p.m. to 5:45 p.m.).
The Lehigh ISE Banquet Dinner will be held at Zoellner Arts Center, Butz Lobby (2nd Floor) 420 East Packer Avenue, Bethlehem, PA 18015 from 6:15 p.m. to 8:45 p.m.
Registration is required for both events:
- To register for the Schantz Distinguished Public Lecture and ISE Awards Ceremony, click here.
- To register for the ISE Banquet Dinner, click here.
If you do not have a Google account, please email skd220@lehigh.edu to register by April 16, 2026.
Abstract: Industrial engineering and operations research can be applied to a wide range of systems with significant societal impact, including logistics and supply chains, manufacturing, energy, building construction, agriculture, healthcare, environmental systems, and scientific discovery enterprises. By leveraging advanced decision-making tools and a systems perspective, these approaches enable the design and improvement of such systems, enhancing their efficiency, resilience, and overall contributions to human well-being. In this talk, Dr. Jin will share insights from his experience in applying industrial and systems engineering across diverse domains, as well as his leadership in large-scale, convergent research initiatives.
Bio: Mingzhou Jin is the John D. Tickle Professor and department head of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK). He also directs the Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment, ISSE for UTK, and is the PI for the Center for Freight Transportation for Efficient & Resilient Supply Chain (FERSC), a $10M DOT/UTC tier-1 center. He also co-leads a new $20M initiative at UTK and Oak Ridge National Lab for advanced manufacturing for affordable building construction. His research interest includes operations research, sustainability, supply chain, logistics, building environment, additive and smart manufacturing, energy efficiency, transportation, and data analytics. His research has been well sponsored, with over $30 million in grants and contracts from many federal and local government agencies and corporations. He has published more than 130 journal papers. His recent work appeared in Nature, Nature Communications, Nature Climate Change, Production and Operations Management, INFORMS Journal on Computing, Mathematical Programming Computation, IISE Transactions, and other top journals. He won the 2024 and 2021 UTK Success in Multidisciplinary Research Award, UTK Research and Creative Achievement Award, Tickle College of Engineering Research Achievement Award, Outstanding Faculty Service Award, and Teaching Fellow Award. He is a fellow of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers. Currently, he is the Editor-in-Chief of the Engineering Economist, the Editor-in-Chief of Cleaner and Circular Bioeconomy, and the Executive Editor of the Journal of Cleaner Production. He received his Ph.D. from Lehigh University in 2001.
Lehigh ISE Spencer C. Schantz Distinguished Lecture Series: This lecture series is endowed in the name of the late Spencer C. Schantz, who graduated from Lehigh in 1955 with a B.S. in Industrial Engineering. Following progressive responsibilities with several electrical manufacturing companies, in 1969 he founded U.S. Controls Corporation and became its first CEO and President. The Spencer C. Schantz Distinguished Lecture Series was established by his wife Jerelyn as a valuable educational experience for faculty, students, and friends of Lehigh’s Industrial and Systems Engineering department.
