Marlin Thomas

Research Professor

Biography

Dr. Marlin U. Thomas is a Research Professor of Industrial & Operations Engineering. He is also Distinguished Professor and Dean Emeritus, Air Force Institute of Technology(AFIT) where he served as Dean of the Graduate School of Engineering and Management from 2006 to 2013. Prior to joining AFIT he served in positions of Professor and Head of the School of Industrial Engineering, and Director of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Engineering Research, at Purdue University from 1993 to 2006. He has held other academic appointments as Professor and Chair, Department of Industrial Engineering, Lehigh University (1988-93); Professor and Chair, Department of Industrial Engineering and Director, Advanced Manufacturing Center, Cleveland State University (1982-87); Professor of Industrial Engineering, University of Missouri-Columbia (1979-82); Associate Professor of Systems Design, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (1976-77); and Assistant/Associate Professor of Operations Research, Naval Postgraduate School (1971-78). He has also served as a Program Director for the National Science Foundation; Manager, Reliability and Warranty Analysis, Chrysler Corporation; and Development Engineer, Owens-Illinois, Inc.

He has held numerous national assignments and positions including Past-President and member of the Board of Trustees for the Institute of Industrial Engineers. He has served on eight editorial boards that include Area Editor, Operations Research; Consulting Editor, McGraw-Hill; Department Editor, and Associate Editor for IIE Transactions. He has also served on numerous government and university advisory panels for research, and academic program reviews, and is a past-member of the Army Science Board. His primary areas of research are operations research, stochastic modeling, and reliability with applications in modeling and evaluating logistics systems with emphasis on optimal design for contingency operations. He is the author or co-author of over 90 papers and textbook contributions. He is a Fellow of the American Society for Quality, the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science, and the Institute of Industrial Engineers; and a Captain (retired), Civil Engineer Corps, U.S. Navy

Publications

1. Thomas, M.U., “Some simplifying conditions for Markov chain modeling,” INFORMS TutORials in Operations Research, Vol. 9, 2012, pp. 184-203
2. Thomas, M.U., “Models for managing contingency construction operations,” Journal of Construction Engineering & Management, Vol. 136/No. 3, 2010, pp. 391- 398
3. Thomas, M.U. and J.P. Richard, “Warranty Based Method for Establishing Reliability Improvement Targets,” IIE Transactions, Vol. 38, No. 12, 2006, pp. 1049-1058
4. Thomas, M.U., “Assessing the Reliability of a Contingency Logistics Network,” Military Operations Research, V9 N1, pp 33-41, 2004
5. Thomas, M.U., “A Prediction Model for Manufacturer Warranty Reserves,” Management Science, Vol. 35, No. 12, 1989, pp. 1515-1519.
6. Thomas, M.U., “A Generalized Maximum Entropy Principle,” Operations Research, Vol. 27, No. 6, 1979, pp. 1188-1196
7. Thomas, M.U. and D.R. Barr, “An Approximate Test of Markov Chain Lumpability,” Journal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 72, No. 357, March 1977, pp. 175-179.