For its 2020 Humans of the Year series, Motherboard selected 20 scientists, engineers, and visionaries who have done remarkable work to make the world a better place. One honoree was Pinar Keskinocak, the William W. George Chair and Professor at the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE).

Keskinocak, who is also the co-founder and director of the Center for Health and Humanitarian Systems at Georgia Tech, has dedicated her career to the applications of operations research and management science with societal impact, particularly health and humanitarian applications and supply chain management. Most recently she has focused her efforts on vaccine distribution and infectious disease modelling during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The pandemic highlighted the weaknesses in many of our ‘systems’ like never before. Its impact, similar to many other previous disasters, has been disproportionately high on vulnerable or underserved populations,” Keskinocak said in the article.

“When we prepare for or respond to a complex emergency, we need the public and the private sectors to speedily coordinate, with all players understanding what is needed from them, when, and where, so that we achieve synergies, providing resources and services that are the right place at the right time. This requires coordination on a national and sometimes global scale, which has been lacking in many of the complex emergencies in the past, including during the COVID-19 pandemic.” 

You can read the entire article about Keskinocak’s work here.