Olin award

Dennis Zhang, assistant professor of operations and manufacturing management at Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis, has won the 2020 Olin Award for research that creates a human-focused algorithm to improve warehouse workers’ packing time while also reducing material costs.

Two Olin Business School faculty members at Washington University in St. Louis collaborated to create a new customer choice algorithm designed to better populate six available slots for products in online stores hosted by Alibaba. Their model produced 28% higher revenues in one week — or nearly $22 million. The study earned them the 2019 Olin Award.

Two Olin Business School researchers at Washington University in St. Louis are highlighted in a new federal report issued March 27 showing how U.S. farmers — facing a surge of weather events and disease outbreaks — can increase production and revenues with innovations produced by government-funded agricultural research.

In a concentrated, continuing effort to link Washington University in St. Louis academic research to everyday business practice, the 10th annual Olin Award recognizes an Olin Business School faculty member who joined two University of Pennsylvania professors in crafting a computer model to guide managers who need to forecast behaviors of newly acquired customers.

Olin alumni and a faculty member were in the spotlight April 13 at the annual dinner and awards ceremony hosted by Olin Business school. Judi McLean Parks, PhD, the Reuben C. and Anne Carpenter Taylor Professor of Organizational Behavior, was the winner of the third annual Olin Award that reconizes research that transforms business.