Brian Denton, PhD

Stephen M. Pollock Collegiate Professor
Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering

Professor, Department of Urology (by Courtesy)

Ph.D., Management Science, McMaster University, Canada, 2001
M.Sc., Physics, York University, Canada, 1996
B.Sc., Chemistry and Physics, McMaster University, Canada, 1994


Brian Denton is the Stephen M. Pollock Professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering. His research interests are in data-driven sequential decision making and optimization under uncertainty with applications to healthcare delivery, public health, medicine, and scheduled systems. He has a cross-appointment in the School of Medicine and he is a member of the Cancer Center and the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation (IHPI) at the University of Michigan.  Before joining the University of Michigan he worked at IBM, Mayo Clinic, and North Carolina State University. His honors and awards include the National Science Foundation Career Award, the INFORMS Service Section Best Paper Prize, the INFORMS Daniel H. Wagner Prize, the Institute of Industrial Engineers Outstanding Publication Award, and the Canadian Operations Research Society Best Paper Award. He served on the Editorial Boards of Health Systems, IISE Transactions, Interfaces, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Medical Decision Making, Operations Research, Optimization in Engineering, and Production and Operations Management. He served as the founding Medical Decision Making Department Editor for IISE Transactions on Healthcare Systems Engineering from 2008-2015. He has co-authored more than 100 journal articles, conference proceedings, book chapters, and patents. He is an elected Fellow of INFORMS and IISE, as well as past Chair of the INFORMS Health Applications Section,  Secretary of INFORMS, and President of INFORMS.

For additional information about his awards & honors, research, and professional activities, click here for CV.

Areas of Interest
Operations Research and Data Science with a focus on sequential decision making and computational optimization under uncertainty including stochastic programming, simulation-optimization, and Markov decision processes. Data analytic approaches to medical decision making related to the detection, treatment, and prevention of chronic diseases including cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Optimization of scheduled systems in manufacturing and service industries.

Opportunities to Join my Research Group
I have several ongoing research projects in the area of decision analytics with applications to health an human safety. Please see my research projects page to learn more about some examples of current projects. Strengths in applied mathematics and computer programming are necessary.  If you are interested in learning more about opportunities then please send me a copy of your CV and a short statement of your interests.

Research Links

Google Citations

National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Bibliography

Research Gate

Collaborator Links

Cecil Sheps Center for Health Services Research, University of North Carolina

Department of Urology, Duke Medicine

Department of Urology, University of Michigan

Department of Health Science Research, Mayo Clinic

Department of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan

Department of Pathology, University of Michigan

Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, NC State University