Can Zhang

Can Zhang is an Assistant Professor in the Operations Management area at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. His research focuses on socially responsible and sustainable operations with an emphasis on serving traditionally underserved populations. More specifically, his existing and ongoing work spans three interrelated areas: 1) nonprofit and public sector operations, 2) healthcare supply chains, and 3) smallholder agricultural supply chains. A common theme of his research is to study how organizations in these sectors can effectively manage their resources to better serve their beneficiaries and create societal benefits. In his research, he works closely with industry collaborators to motivate research questions from real-world challenges and data. He also aims to deliver implementable solutions and actionable insights to make a practical impact.

His work has received multiple recognitions, including the first place for the 2021 MSOM Best Paper Award, 2019 MSOM Award for Responsible Research in OM, 2017 MSOM Practice-Based Competition, 2017 MSOM Student Paper Competition, 2017 INFORMS Doing Good with Good OR Student Paper Competition, honorable mention for the 2019 INFORMS George B. Dantzig Dissertation Award, and a finalist for the 2022 Public Sector Operations Research Best Paper Award, 2017 INFORMS Franz Edelman Award, and 2015 INFORMS George Nicholson Student Paper Competition.

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 and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Tsinghua University.