About

Turgay Ayer is the Virginia C. and Joseph C. Mello Endowed Chair and a Professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he also serves as the Director of Business Intelligence and Healthcare Analytics at the Center for Health and Humanitarian Systems. In addition, Dr. Ayer serves as a Senior Scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and holds a courtesy appointment at Emory University School of Medicine.

Dr. Ayer’s research focuses on healthcare analytics, AI and generative AI in medicine, socially responsible operations, and practice-focused research. He has published over 80 peer-reviewed articles in top management, engineering, medical, and health policy journals. His work has also been widely covered by major media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, US News, NPR, and Fox News. In addition to his research, Ayer actively teaches courses on AI and healthcare to engineering, management, and medical students, fostering interdisciplinary education in these rapidly evolving fields.

Ayer's research has made a significant policy impact, notably changing blood collection operations for the American Red Cross nationwide, influencing lung cancer drug pricing and coverage decisions in the U.S. and U.K., optimizing distribution strategies for scarce hepatitis C treatment drugs in correctional health systems, and improving the allocation of medical surplus products to the developing world by a major medical surplus recovery organization.

In recognition of his contributions, Ayer has received numerous best paper awards and has been named a Bonder Scholar and an Edelman Laureate. His research has been supported by over $3 million in grant funding from various institutions, including the National Science Foundation.

Ayer is actively involved with INFORMS and has been a long-term member for over 15 years. He currently serves as a Department Editor for one of the flagship journals of INFORMS, Operations Research, in the area of Real-World OR Innovations. Additionally, he is a past president of the INFORMS Health Applications Society, the second-largest society within INFORMS.