Background

Pelin Pekgun is an associate professor of management science in the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. She also serves as the faculty director for the Master of Science in Business Analytics program at the Darla Moore School of Business. She was formerly a visiting assistant professor in the Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech. She received M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in industrial and systems engineering from Georgia Tech, and B.S. and M.S. degrees in industrial engineering from Bogazici University.

Prior to joining academia, Dr. Pekgun led the operations research team in North America at JDA Software’s Pricing and Revenue Management Group, where she worked in a variety of projects including markdown pricing for retail; forecasting and price optimization for hospitality, travel, golf, and other leisure industries. Her work with the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group on stay night price optimization was a finalist for the 2012 INFORMS Franz Edelman Award and the 2013 INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section Practice Award.

Dr. Pekgun’s research interests include applications of management science and operations research in supply chain management, pricing and revenue management, and marketing/operations interface. Her research has appeared in Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Production and Operations Management, Journal of Operations Management, Decision Sciences, INFORMS Journal on Applied Analytics and IIE Transactions. She was awarded honorable mention for the INFORMS George B. Dantzig Dissertation Award in 2008, won the IIE Transactions Best Paper Award in Scheduling and Logistics in 2009, and was a finalist for the 2018 Journal of Operations Management Jack Meredith Best Paper Award, 2019 INFORMS Service Science Best Paper Award and 2020/21 M&SOM Practice-Based Research Competition.

Dr. Pekgun currently serves as an Associate Editor for Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Decision Sciences and INFORMS Journal on Applied Analytics, and the topical editor for Applications with Societal Impact for the Wiley Encyclopedia of Operations Research and Management Science. She also serves as the VP of Membership and Professional Recognition in the INFORMS Board of Directors, a Board member for the INFORMS Section on Practice, and a member of the INFORMS Practice Strategy Committee.

Research

Dr. Pekgun’s research interests include applications of management science and operations research in pricing and revenue management, supply chain management, marketing/operations interface, behavioral operations management, and health and humanitarian operations.

Education

• Ph.D., Georgia Tech, 2007
• M.S., Georgia Tech, 2005
• M.S., Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey, 2001
• B.S., Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey, 2000