I am an assistant professor in the Graduate Program in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering (ORIE), which is within the Department of Mechanical Engineering, at The University of Texas at Austin (CV).  I also hold a courtsey appointment in the Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering (PGE). In addition to these appointments, I am a fellow in the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy (CIEEP) and the Center for Petroleum Asset Risk Management (CPARM). I hold MS and PhD degrees in Engineering-Economic Systems from Stanford University. Before returning to academia, I was a senior engagement manager and co-director of client education for Strategic Decisions Group.

My research and teaching interests are broadly focused in the area of decision making under uncertainty. My primary application area is in the energy arena. I am Chair of RPSEA's (a DOE program) Ultra-deepwater Environmental, Safety, and Regulatory Technical Advisory Committee. My research has been funded by the NSF, DOE, NETL, and private companies. In 2009, I was fortunate enough to be awarded an NSF CAREER grant. My work has been featured in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Bloomberg, National Public Radio, and in dozens of local and regional media sources. In addition, this work is featured in the documentary Cool It. This work was part of the Copenhagen Consensus on Climate Project and was selected by a panel of economists, including four Nobel Laureates, as the best response to climate change. You can learn more here. Here is my Internet Movie Database page.

Some, that have not been exposed to quantitative decision-making or risk-analysis methods, may question the value of quantitative methods. As a counter example, consider Chevron Oil Corporation (one of the top-ten largest companies in the world). In this  video, Chevron Vice Chairman, George Kirkland explains how Chevron uses decision analysis to make every major decision. Mr. Kirkland states that "Decision analysis is a part of how Chevron does business, for a simple reason--IT WORKS."

Watch this Stanford/UT webinar featuring my presentation on Decision Quality.

Do you watch The Weather Channel and wonder how accurate their precipitation forecasts are? This paper summarizes my study of over 13 million precipitation forecasts. You can use the tables I include below to convert The Weather Channel's precipitation forecasts into observed frequencies. To use the tables you simply look up the forecasted probability of precipitation (PoP) given by The Weather Channel on the horizontal axis and then read down the rows to adjust for the length of forecast. For example, a 5-day lead-time is a forecast for 5 days from today.

Central (KY, IL, IN, MO, OH, TN, and WV): Table
East North Central (IA, MI, MN, and WI): Table
Northeast (CT, DE, ME, MD, MA, NH, NJ, and NY): Table
South (AK, LA, KS, MS, OK, and TX): Table
Southeast (AL, FL, GA, NC, SC, and VA): Table
Southwest (AZ, CO, NM, and UT): Table
West (CA and NV): Table
West North Central (MT, NE, ND, SD, and WY): Table

...more in About