Research Expertise: Business analytics, operations and management science, planning and scheduling under uncertainty, optimization

Professor David Woodruff’s research concerns computational aspects of optimal decision-making. He is particularly interested in problems with a mix of discrete and continuous choices with multiple time stages when there is significant uncertainty. His research includes solution algorithms, problem representation and modeling language support. He has worked on applications in operations, logistics and science and has been involved recently in a number of applications in electrical energy planning and scheduling. 

He has served as the editor-in-chief of the INFORMS Journal on Computing, which is a publication of the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science. His paper with Jean-Paul Watson titled “Progressive Hedging Innovations for a Class of Stochastic Mixed-Integer Resource Allocation Problems” shared the best paper of 2011 award in the journal Computational Management Science. He was the UC Davis principal investigator for the ARPAe (Department of Energy) grant Improved Power System Operation Using Advanced Stochastic Optimization awarded in 2012. He is presently principal investigator for additional U.S. Department of Energy–funded research on grid planning in the presence of uncertainty due to renewables.

Woodruff teaches the core course Data Analysis for Managers. He sometimes teaches Managing for Operational Excellence and the Management Science course. Woodruff previously served as associate dean for instructional programs and also as director of concurrent degree programs.

Woodruff earned his Ph.D. in industrial engineering and management sciences from Northwestern University. He received both his M.S. and B.S. in industrial engineering and engineering management from Stanford University.