Overview
Can Zhang’s is an Associate Professor in the Operations Management area at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. His research studies sustainable and socially responsible operations with a special focus on emerging economies and underserved populations. Specifically, in close collaboration with industry partners, he develops analytical models to study resource allocation, supply chain management, and incentive alignment problems that arise in the health and humanitarian contexts and in developing and emerging economies. His recent and ongoing research includes blood supply chains, resource allocation in nonprofit and public sectors, healthcare delivery to underserved populations, and agricultural supply chains in developing countries. He has won multiple research awards, including the MSOM Award for Responsible Research in OM, the MSOM Student Paper Competition, the MSOM Practice-Based Research Competition, and the INFORMS Doing Good with Good OR Student Paper Competition. He is also among the finalists for the INFORMS Franz Edelman Award, the INFORMS George Nicholson Student Paper Competition, and the INFORMS Health Applications Society Pierskalla Best Paper Award.
At Fuqua, Prof. Zhang teaches Operations Management for the Daytime MBA program. Prior to joining Fuqua, he received a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology in 2018 and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Tsinghua University in 2012.
Current Appointments & Affiliations
Recent Publications
Truncated Balancing Policy for Perishable Inventory Management: Combating High Shortage Penalties
Journal Article Manufacturing and Service Operations Management · November 1, 2023 Problem definition: Motivated by a platelet inventory management problem, we study a fixed lifetime perishable inventory management problem under a general demand process. Determining an optimal ordering policy for perishable inventory systems is particula ... Full text CitePartial Completion as a Nonprofit Strategy
Journal Article Manufacturing and Service Operations Management · November 1, 2022 Problem definition: Faced with the challenge of serving beneficiaries with heterogeneous needs and under budget constraints, some nonprofit organizations (NPOs) have adopted an innovative solution: providing partially complete products or services to benef ... Full text CiteTruthful mechanisms for medical surplus product allocation
Journal Article Manufacturing and Service Operations Management · July 1, 2020 Problem definition: We analyze a resource allocation problem faced by medical surplus recovery organizations (MSROs) that recover medical surplus products to fulfill the needs of underserved healthcare facilities in developing countries. The objective of t ... Full text CiteRecent Grants
COVID 19: Vaccination Service Delivery Options and Tech Prep in China
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation · 2020 - 2022View All Grants