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Laura Albert is a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the College of Engineering. Laura is an expert in Operations Research, specializing solving and modeling discrete optimization problems arising from applications in homeland security, disaster management, emergency response, public services, and healthcare.

Education
Laura Albert completed her bachelor in General Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2000. Albert continued to study for her Masters in General Engineering and Computational Science at the same institution in 2001. In 2006, Albert completed her PhD in Industrial Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Chanpaign on the topic "Designing aviation security systems: Theory and practice".

Research
Albert's research interests are in the field of Operations Research. Albert has published more than 55 articles on topics including public safety, public services and emergency response during severe weather, sports analytics, bracketology, homeland security, aviation security, aviation safety and health care. This research is primarily in the area of discrete optimization.

Awards

 * George W. Harper Award for outstanding work in safety engineering, 2005, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL.
 * Operations Research Challenge Competition Winner, First Symposium on Operations Research and the Criminal Justice System, US National Institute of Justice 2006.
 * INFORMS Computing Society Student Paper Competition, Runner-up, 2006.
 * Fellow, National Science Foundation, Enabling the Next Generation of Hazards and Disasters Researchers Fellows Program, 2009.
 * Outstanding IIE Publication Award (with Sheldon H. Jacobson), 2009.
 * Best paper award, 2009 Industrial Engineering Research Conference, Operations Research track (with Sunarin Chanta, Maria Mayorga, and Margaret Wiecek), 2009.
 * Young Investigator Award, Department of the Army-Materiel Command, Army Research Office, 2010.
 * NSF CAREER Award, 2011.
 * Achievement Award Winner for Next-Generation Emergency Medical Response Through Data Analysis & Planning (Best in Category winner, as part of the Hanover County Fire & EMS team), National Association of Counties, 2010.
 * Excellence in Scholarship Award, College of Humanities and Sciences, Virginia Commonwealth University, 2012.
 * Best paper award from Risk Analysis, Society of Risk Analysis (with Casey Rothschild and Seth Guikema), 2012.
 * Best Paper Award from IIE Transactions Focused Issue on Scheduling and Logistics (with Maria Mayorga), 2014.
 * INFORMS Moving Spirit Award for service to INFORMS fora, 2014.
 * Faculty recognition award, Leaders in Engineering Excellence and Diversity, University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering, 2015, 2017, 2018.
 * Harvey Spangler Award for Technology Enhanced Instruction, University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering, 2017.
 * Fellow, the Big Ten Academic Alliance-Academic Leadership Program (BTAA-ALP), 2018-19.
 * Harvey D. Spangler Faculty Scholar, College of Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2018 – 2021.
 * INFORMS Impact Prize, “How Operations Research Changed Aviation Security,” with Sheldon Jacobson, Kenneth Fletcher, Adrian Lee, and Alexander Nikolaev, 2018.
 * Ragnar E. Onstad Service to Society Award, College of Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2019.
 * Fulbright Award, 2020.

Academic activities
Laura Albert is very active within the operations research and management science community. Albert is currently the INFORMS Vice President for Marketing, Communication and Outreach. She has also served as the President of Women in OR/MS (WORMS, a forum of INFORMS), the President of the INFORMS Section on Public Sector Operations Research, and a member of the INFORMS Strategic Planning Committee, Finance Committee, and IT committee.

Outreach activities
Punk Rock OR is an outreach activity for Operations Research created and maintained by Laura Albert. This website highlights the many applications of operations research. Laura is also the director of Badger Bracketology, which reports on the methodology for forecasting the NCAA football playoff based on the research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering sports analytics team.