Jessica Heier Stamm, PhD IE 2010, is the recipient of the 2011 INFORMS Transportation and Logistics Society Dissertation Prize for her dissertation, “Design and Analysis of Humanitarian and Public Health Logistics Systems,” which was completed under the direction of Ozlem Ergun and Julie Swann, associate professors in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering.  The prize was awarded at the 2011 INFORMS annual meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The award is the oldest and most prestigious honor for doctoral dissertations in the transportation science and logistics area. The twenty-four submissions were judged on fundamental contribution and originality of the ideas or methods; practical importance or applicability in solving important real problems; and clarity and excellence of the exposition.

Heier Stamm received her bachelor’s from Kansas State University in 2004 and her doctoral degree from Georgia Tech in 2010. She joined the industrial and manufacturing systems engineering department of Kansas State University as an assistant professor in December 2010. She has received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research and IIE Memorial Fellowships and was the recipient of National Engineers Week Foundation New Face of Engineering in February 2008.