Laura Albert’s cv is here (it is regularly updated). Her homepage at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is here.

Find Laura on Google Scholar and ResearchGate and ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7079-4473 and SCOPUS: 9334925000

Awards

• Arms, Control, Disarmament and International Security (ACDIS) Thesis Initiation Fellowship, 2002, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL.
• Alumni Teaching Fellowship, 2004, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL.
• 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.
• Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (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.
• Advancement of Women in Operations Research/Management Science Award, INFORMS 2019.
• Fulbright Award, 2020.
• Fellow, Institute of Industrial & Systems Engineers (IISE), 2020.

Publications

Journal publications

1. Jacobson, S. H., A. McLay, S. N. Hall, J. E. Orosz, 2005. Performance Analysis of Cyclical Simulated Annealing Algorithms, Methodology and Computing in Applied Probability 7(2) 183 – 201.
2. Jacobson, S. H., J. E. Virta, A. McLay, J. E. Kobza, 2005.  Integer Program Models for the Deployment of Airport Baggage Screening Security Devices, Optimization and Engineering 6(3) 339 – 359.
3. Vaughan, D. E., S. H. Jacobson, S. N.Hall, and A. McLay, 2005. Simultaneous Generalized Hill Climbing Algorithms for Addressing Sets of Discrete Optimization Problems, INFORMS Journal on Computing 17(4) 1 – 12.
4. Jacobson, S. H., A. McLay, J. E. Kobza, J. M. Bowman, 2005. Modeling and Analyzing Multiple Station Baggage Screening Security System Performance, Naval Research Logistics 52(1), 30 – 45.
5. McLay, L. A. and D. E. Goldberg, 2005. Efficient Genetic Algorithms using Discretization Scheduling, Evolutionary Computation 13 (3) 353 – 385.
6. McLay, L. A., S. H. Jacobson, and J. E. Kobza, 2006. A Multilevel Passenger Prescreening Problem for Aviation Security, Naval Research Logistics 53 (3), 183 – 197.
7. Jacobson, S. H., A. McLay, S. N. Hall, D. Henderson, D. E. Vaughan, 2006. Optimal Search Strategies Using Simultaneous Generalized Hill Climbing Algorithms, Mathematical and Computer Modelling 49(9-10), 1061 – 1073
8. Jacobson, S.H., A. McLay, 2006. The Economic Impact of Obesity on Automobile Fuel Consumption, The Engineering Economist 51(4), 307 – 323.
9. McLay, L. A., S. H. Jacobson, and J. E. Kobza, 2007. Integer Programming Models and Analysis for a Multilevel Passenger Screening Problem, IIE Transactions 39(1), 73 – 81.
10. McLay, L. A. and S. H. Jacobson, 2007. Integer Knapsack Problems with Set-up Weights, Computational Optimization and Applications 37(1), 35 – 47.
11. McLay, L. A. and S. H. Jacobson, 2007. Algorithms for the Bounded Set-Up Knapsack Problem, Discrete Optimization 4(2), 206 – 212.
12. Nikolaev, A. G., S. H. Jacobson, and A. McLay, 2007. A Sequential Stochastic Security System Design Problem for Aviation Security, Transportation Science 41(2), 182 – 194.
13. McLay, L. A., S. H. Jacobson and J.E. Kobza, 2008. The Tradeoff between Technology and Prescreening Intelligence in Checked Baggage Screening for Aviation Security, Journal of Transportation Security 1(2), 107 – 126.
14. Jacobson, S.H., and A. McLay, 2009. Applying Statistical Tests to Empirically Compare Tabu Search Parameters for MAX 3-SATISFIABILITY: A Case Study, Omega 37(3), 522-534.
15. McLay, L.A., A Maximum Expected Covering Location Model with Two Types of Servers, IIE Transactions 41(8), 730 – 741.
16. Lee, A.J., A. McLay, and S.H. Jacobson, 2009. Designing Aviation Security Passenger Screening Systems using Nonlinear Control. SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization 48(4), 2085 – 2105.
17. McLay, L. A., S. H. Jacobson, and A. G. Nikolaev, 2009. A Sequential Stochastic Passenger Screening Problem for Aviation Security, IIE Transactions 41(6), 575 – 591.
18. McLay, L.A., S.H. Jacobson, A.J. Lee, 2010. Risk-Based Policies for Aviation Security Checkpoint Screening.  Transportation Science 44(3), 333-349.
19. McLay, L.A. and M.E. Mayorga, 2010. Evaluating Emergency Medical Service Performance Measures. Health Care Management Science 13(2), 124 – 136.
20. Merrick, J.R.W., McLay, L.A., 2010. Is Screening Cargo Containers for Smuggled Nuclear Threats Worthwhile? Decision Analysis 7(2), 155 – 171.
21. McLay, L.A., Mayorga, M.E., 2011. Evaluating the Impact of Performance Goals on Dispatching Decisions in Emergency Medical Service. IIE Transactions on Healthcare Service Engineering 1, 185 – 196.
22. McLay, L.A., Foufoulides, C., Merrick, J.R.W., 2011. Using Simulation Optimization to Construct Cost-Effective Screening Strategies for Cervical Cancer. Health Care Management Science 13(4), 294 – 318.
23. McLay, L.A., Dreiding, R., Howe, G.L. 2011. Rethinking the Encounter Probability for Direct-to-Target Nuclear Attacks for Aviation Security, Journal of Transportation Security 4(3), 447 – 480.
24. Chanta, S., Mayorga, M.E., Kurz, M.E., McLay, L.A., 2011. The minimum p-envy location problem: A new model for equitable distribution of emergency resources. IIE Transactions on Healthcare Systems Engineering 1(2), 101 – 115.
25. McLay, L.A., J. D. Lloyd, and E. Niman, 2011. Interdicting Nuclear Material on Cargo Containers using Knapsack Problem Models. Annals of Operations Research 187(1), 185 – 205.
26. McLay, L.A., Moore, H. 2012. Hanover County Improves Its Response to Emergency Medical 911 Calls. Interfaces 42(4), 380-394.
27. Rothschild, C., McLay, L.A., Guikema, S., 2012. Adversarial risk analysis with incomplete information: A level-k approach. Risk Analysis 32(7), 1219 – 1231. This paper was selected as a Best Paper of 2012 for Risk Analysis.
28. Bandar, D., Mayorga, M.E., McLay, L.A., 2012. Optimal Dispatching Strategies for Emergency Vehicles to Increase Patient Survivability. International Journal of Operational Research.
29. McLay, L.A., Dreiding, R., 2012. Multilevel, Threshold-Based Policies for Cargo Container Security Screening Systems.  European Journal of Operational Research 220, 522 – 529.
30. McLay, L.A., Brooks, J.P., Boone, E.L., 2012. Analyzing the Volume and Nature of Emergency Medical Calls during Severe Weather Events using Regression Methodologies. Socio-Economic Planning Sciences 46, 55 – 66.
31. McLay, L.A., Rothschild, C., Guikema, S., 2012. Robust adversarial risk analysis: A level-k approach. Decision Analysis 9(1), 41 –54.
32. Kunkel, A., McLay, L.A. 2013. Determining minimum staffing levels during snowstorms using an integrated simulation, regression, and reliability model. Health Care Management Science 16(1), 14 – 26.
33. McLay, L.A., Mayorga, M.E., 2013. A model for optimally dispatching ambulances to emergency calls with classification errors in patient priorities. IIE Transactions 45(1), 1—24. This paper was selected as a Best Paper Award for IIE Transactions Focused Issue on Scheduling and Logistics.
34. Mayorga, M.E., Bandara, D., McLay, L.A., 2013. Districting and dispatching policies for emergency medical service systems to improve patient survival, IIE Transactions on Healthcare Systems Engineering 3(1), 39 – 56.
35. Toro-Diaz, H., Mayorga, M.E., Chanta, S., McLay, L.A., 2013. Joint location and dispatching decisions for Emergency Medical Services. Computers & Industrial Engineering 64(4), 917 – 928.
36. Dreiding, R.A., McLay, L.A., An Integrated Screening Model for Screening Cargo Containers for Nuclear Weapons. European Journal of Operational Research 230, 181 – 189.
37. Malhotra, A.K., Goldberg, S.R., McLay, L., Martin, N.R., Wolfe, L.G., Levy, M.M., Khiatani, V., Borchers, T.C., Duane, T.M., Aboutanos, M.B., Ivatury, R.R., 2014. DVT Surveillance Program in the ICU: Analysis of cost-effectiveness. PLOS ONE 9(9), e106793.
38. Chanta, S., Mayorga, M. E., McLay, L. A., 2014. Improving Rural Emergency Services without Sacrificing Coverage: A Bi-Objective Covering Location Model for EMS Systems. Annals of Operations Research 221(1), 133 – 159.
39. Sudtachat, K., Mayorga, M.E., McLay, L.A. 2014. Recommendations for Dispatching Emergency Vehicles under Multi-tiered Response via Simulation. International Transactions in Operational Research 21(4), 581-617.
40. Chanta, S., Mayorga, M.E., McLay, L.A., 2014. The minimum p-envy problem with requirement on minimum survival rate. Computers & Industrial Engineering 74, 228 – 239.
41. Clarke, J., McLay, L.A., McLeskey, Jr., J.T., 2014. Comparison of genetic algorithm to particle swarm for constrained simulation-based optimization. Advanced Engineering Informatics 28, 81 – 90.
42. Bandara, D., Mayorga, M.E., McLay, L.A., 2014. Priority Dispatching Strategies for EMS Systems, The Journal of the Operational Research Society 65, 572 – 587.
43. Grannan, B.C., Bastian, N., McLay, L.A. A Maximum Expected Covering Problem for Locating and Dispatching Two Classes of Military Medical Evacuation Air Assets. Operations Research Letters 9, 1511-1531.
44. Toro-Diaz, H., Mayorga, M.E., McLay, L.A., Rajagopalan, H., Saydem, C., Reducing disparities in large scale emergency medical service systems, Journal of the Operational Research Society 66, 1169-1181. doi:10.1057/jors.2014.83
45. McLay, L.A., Mayorga, M.E., 2013. A dispatching model for server-to-customer systems that balances efficiency and equity. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management 15(2), 205 – 200.
46. Ansari, S., McLay, L.A., Mayorga, M.E., 2015. A Maximum Expected Covering Problem for District Design, Transportation Science 51(1), 376 – 390.
47. Sudtachat, K., Mayorga, M.E., McLay, L.A., 2016. A Nested-Compliance Table Policy for Emergency Medical Service Systems under Relocation. OMEGA 58, 154 – 168.
48. Barker, K., Lambert, J.H., Zobel, C.W., Tapia, A.H., Ramirez-Marques, J.E., Albert, L., Nicholson, C., Caragea, C., 2017. Defining resilience analytics. Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure 2(2), 59 – 67. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23789689.2017.1294859
49. Ansari, S., Yoon, S., Albert, L. A., 2017. An approximate Hypercube model for public service systems with co-located servers and multiple response. Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review. 103, 143 – 157. DOI: 1016/j.tre.2017.04.013.
50. Yoon, S., Albert, L. An Expected Coverage Model with a Cutoff Priority Queue. Health Care Management Science 21(4), 517 – 533. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10729-017-9409-3.
51. Enayati, S., Mayorga, M., Toro-Diaz, H., Albert, L. 2018. Identifying trade-offs in equity and efficiency for simultaneously optimizing location and multi-priority dispatch of ambulances. International Transactions in Operational Research 26, 415 – 438. DOI:1111/itor.12590
52. Iloglu, S., Albert, L.A. An Integrated Network Design and Scheduling Problem for Network Recovery and Emergency Response. Operations Research Perspectives 5, 218 – 231. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orp.2018.08.001
53. Zheng, K., and Albert, L.A. An exact algorithm for solving the bilevel facility interdiction and fortification problem. Operations Research Letters 46(6), 573 – 578.
54. Almoghathawia, Y., Barker, K., Albert, L. 2019. Resilience-Driven Restoration Model for Interdependent Infrastructure Networks, Reliability Engineering and System Safety, 185, 12 – 23.
55. Zheng, K., Albert, L., Luedtke, J.R., Towle, E. 2019. A budgeted maximum multiple coverage model for cybersecurity planning and management, To appear in IISE Transactions. DOI: 10.1080/24725854.2019.1584832
56. Zheng, K., and Albert, L.A. A robust approach for mitigating risks in cyber supply chains, Risk Analysis 39(9), 2076-2092.
57. Zheng, K., and Albert, L.A. Interdiction models for delaying adversarial attacks against critical information technology infrastructure. Naval Research Logistics 66(5), 411 – 429.
58. Yoon, S., and Albert, L.A. A dynamic ambulance routing model with multiple response. To appear in Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tre.2019.11.001
59. Iloglu, S. and Albert, L.A. A maximal multiple coverage and network restoration problem for disaster recovery. Operations Research Perspectives 7, 1 – 14.
60. Sudtachat, K., Mayorga, M.E., Chanta, S., Albert, L.A., 2020. Joint relocation and districting using a nested-compliance model for EMS systems, To appear in Computers & Industrial Engineering.
61. Banks, L. Albert, J. Caulkins, F. Greig, A. Raftery, D. Thomas. 2020. A Conversation about Covid-19 with Economists, Sociologists, and Operations Researchers. Harvard Data Science Review, Special Issue 1 – COVID-19, Retrieved from https://hdsr.mitpress.mit.edu/pub/zp886sce.
62. Enayaty-Ahangar, F., Albert, L.A., DuBois, E. 2020. A survey of optimization models and methods for cyberinfrastructure security. To appear in IISE Transactions. https://doi.org/10.1080/24725854.2020.1781306
63. A. Albert. 2020. Engaging the media: Telling our operations research stories to the public. To appear in SN Operations Research Forum.
64. Schmidt, A. P., Albert, L.A., and Zheng, K. 2020. Risk management for cyber-infrastructure protection: A bi-objective integer programming approach. To appear in Reliability Engineering & System Safety.

Conference papers

1. McLay, L.A., Jacobson, S.H., Kobza, J.E., 2006. “Balancing Technology Capability Enhancement and Passenger Prescreening Information for Aviation Baggage Screening, Proceedings of Safe Skies Symposium, Washington, DC.
2. Jacobson, S.H., Hall, S.N., McLay, L.A., 2006, “Visiting Near-Optimal Solutions Using Local Search Algorithms.” Proceedings in Computational Statistics, COMPSTAT 2006 (Editors, A. Rizzi, M. Vichi), Physica-Verlag, Springer, Heidelberg, Germany, 471-481.
3. Chanta, S., Mayorga, M., McLay, L., Wiecek, M., 2009, “A Bi-Objective Covering Location Model for EMS Systems.” Proceedings of the 2009 Industrial Engineering Research Conference.  Won Best Paper Award in the Operations Research track.
4. Buede, D., Mahoney, S., Guikema, S., Ezell, B., McLay, L., 2010. “Plural models for adaptive adversary modeling.” Proceedings of the Workshop on Grand Challenges in Modeling, Simulation, and Analysis for Homeland Security (MSAHS 2010).
5. Albert McLay, L., 2015. Discrete optimization models for homeland security and emergency management, TutORial at the 2015 INFORMS Annual Meeting, November 1-4, 2015, Philadelphia, PA.
6. Erkin Otles, Laura Albert Mclay, Jillian K Gorski, and Brian W Patterson. 2016. Forecasting emergency department patient admissions utilizing machine learning. Academic Emergency Medicine 23:S90

Professional Publications

1. McLay, L.A., S.H. Jacobson, and J.E. Kobza, 2005. “Making Skies Safer: Applying Operations Research to Aviation Passenger Prescreening Systems,” ORMS Today, 32(5), 24-31. Later reprinted in Analytics, Spring 2008, 12-17.
2. McLay, L.A., 2009. “Interviewing for an academic position,” In Tips on getting an academic position, Ed. Z.J. Pei, Lulu, 33 – 36.
3. McLay, L.A. “Beneath and Beyond Blogging for OR,” IFORS News 6(3), September 2012, available at http://ifors.org/newsletter/IFORSsept2012.pdf.
4. Albert, L. “Opportunities for O.R. at the National Science Foundation.” ORMS Today 44(3), p. 10.
5. Albert, L. Inaugural article for the INFORS Diversity Community Blog, “Women in OR/MS.”
6. Albert, L. Securing cyber-infrastructure to keep sensitive data safe. ISE Magazine (from IISE), Volume 51, Number 11, p. 48.
7. Albert, L. Inaugural article for the INFORS Diversity Community Blog, “Women in OR/MS.”

Papers under review

1. Yoon, S. and Albert, L.A., 2018. Dynamic Resource Assignment for Emergency Response with Multiple Types of Vehicles, Submitted to Operations Research, October 2018.
2. Dubois, E. Albert, L.A. 2020. Dispatching Policies During Prolonged Mass Casualty Incidents. Under review at SN Operations Research Forum.
3. Yoon, S., and Albert, L.A. A Scenario-Based Ambulance Location Model for Emergency Response with Two Types of Vehicles. In final preparation to be submitted to Transportation Science.
4. Albert, L.A., Nikolaev, A., Lee, A.J., Fletcher, K., and Jacobson, S.H., 2019. Why TSA PreCheck works, Submitted to IISE Transactions.
5. Iloglu, S., Albert, L.A., Michini, C. 2019. Facility Location and Restoration Games, Under review at Transportation Science.

Technical reports and working papers

1. Albert, L.A., Angelis, J. 2017. Jump balls, rating falls, and elite status: A sensitivity analysis of three quarterback rating statistics. Technical report, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Public talks

Slides for various invited talks are tagged here and listed below:

1. My keynote at the 4th International Workshop on Planning of Emergency Services in Delft
2. Advanced analytics for supporting public policy, bracketology, and beyond! My WISCNET 2017 keynote.
3. The math behind March Madness: my public lecture in the Crossroads of Ideas seminar series in the Discovery Building at the UW-Madison campus
4. Fuzzy Vance Lecture in Mathematics at Oberlin in 2015
5. German OR Society semi-plenary lecture in 2014

Teaching Materials

Blog posts about courses I’ve taught:

1. Engineering systems: critical infrastructure and logistics (freshmen introduction to engineering module)
2. Public sector operations research: a PhD seminar course (the course blog is here)

Teaching talks:

1. My teaching journey: There and back again

Teaching materials:

Categories: Decision Analysis (DA), linear programming (LP), integer programming (IP), modeling (MOD), applied probability (AP), and simulation (SIM)

1. [SIM] Presidential election forecasting model similar to what Nate Silver developed for 538. I have instructions, an Excel spreadsheet for Monte Carlo simulation, and an Excel spreadsheet that can be used with @RISK.
2. [IP,MOD] My slides on modeling how to locate ambulances for responding to calls for service
3. [LP] My slides on football decision-making and game theory
4. [DA] I made an Excel spreadsheet to perform a MODA analysis on how I should obtain my morning cup of coffee.  The blog posts are here and here.
5. [DA] I made an Excel spreadsheet to perform MODA analysis on which washing machine to purchase. The blog posts are here and here.
6. [AP, MOD] I created an Excel spreadsheet model to compute the expected number of state license plates I would see on a road trip. The related blog posts are here and here.
7. [LP] I created a linear programming model in an Excel spreadsheet (instructions here if you want to use this as a teaching aid) for solving the assignment problem that was applied to a real data set to arrange marriages. The related blog post is here.