August 08, 2006 — Detlof von Winterfeldt, professor of public policy and management, has joined the Viterbi School’s Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering as a professor of industrial and systems Engineering.  Von Winterfeldt retains a joint appointment in the School of Policy, Planning, and Development, where he has served in a number of senior administrative positions, but the Viterbi School appointment is now his primary one.

Detlof von Winterfeldt

Von Winterfeldt, director of the USC Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events (CREATE), is an expert in decision analysis, risk analysis, environmental policy and homeland security.   His research interests focus on the foundation and practice of decision analysis as it is applied to risk and environmental problems.

“This modification in Professor von Winterfeldt’s appointment strongly supports and improves the Epstein ISE Department’s research and teaching capabilities in the areas of engineering management and systems engineering, strengthens interdisciplinary ties between engineering and applied social science, and will help ensure that the Epstein ISE Department continues its ascent,” said ISE Department Chair Jim Moore.  “No one I know is quite as good as Detlof at formalizing and exercising representations of complex, multidisciplinary decision problems.  He is a unique and gifted scholar.”

Von Winterfeldt has taught courses in statistics, decision analysis, behavioral decision research, risk analysis and risk management, and is co-author of the book, Decision Analysis and Behavioral Research, and over ninety scientific articles and book chapters. As a consultant, von Winterfeldt has applied decision and risk analysis to many management problems in government and private industry.

Von Winterfeldt was a member of the National Science Foundation's advisory panel for the Decision, Risk, and Management Science Program.  He has been a member of the National Academies’ Board on Mathematical Sciences and Its Applications, and many committees of the NAS, including, his recent memberships in the Committee on Transporting Nuclear Waste and the Committee on Defense Modeling, Simulation and Analysis.

He has served on many editorial boards, including Management Science, Operations Research Risk Analysis and Behavioral Decision Making. In addition, von Winterfeldt is a Fellow of the Society of Risk Analysis and of the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science, where he served as chairman of the Decision Analysis Society and has received the society’s highest award, the Frank P. Ramsey medal.