Surya Pathak

Area Coordinator, OM&IS

Professor

pathaksd@uw.edu
(425) 352-3617
UWBB-217

Surya Pathak is a Professor of Operations Management in the UWB School of Business. He received his PhD in interdisciplinary management of technology from Vanderbilt University in 2005. Prior to joining University of Washington, Bothell he has served as a research and technical lead at the Advanced Computing Center for Research and Education developing next generation network based data storage technologies, and as a Senior Research Associate in the Engineering Management Program and Systems and Decision Making group at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee.

He is currently conducting research in different areas related to supply chain management. His first and foremost interest is in investigating supply “networks” rather than “chains”, using complex adaptive systems and network theory. Particularly he is interested in, a) understanding the implications of considering a network based model on supply management decisions, taken under risk and uncertainty and, b) developing policy design frameworks that would aid policy makers and managers in making informed decisions. Dr. Pathak is deeply involved in using the network based view to explain sustainability related issues of supply networks. He recently was part of a multi-university research team that was awarded a National Science Foundation grant to study the link between technical networks, supply networks and environmental performance (one of the dimensions of sustainability).

While Supply chain management is his primary focal area of research, Dr Pathak is very interested in using the Complexity theory and Network theory lens to understand diffusion of lean manufacturing practices in a supply chain, project management in large organizations, and understanding the interface between marketing, finance and operations. His methodological orientations include agent-based simulations and cellular automaton models on grid computing infrastructure along with mathematical modeling, robust and reliability-based design optimization, archival data analysis, and game theoretic modeling techniques. Recently Dr. Pathak has also used qualitative research methods and secondary data based empirical techniques to enhance the richness of his research investigations.

He is a founding member of the Center for Supply Network Science at Arizona State University, at Tempe, Arizona. Dr. Pathak’s work has been published in the Decision Support Systems, Journal of Supply Chain Management, Decision Sciences and IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management. He frequently reviews research papers for the Journal of Operations Management, Decision Sciences, Journal of Supply Chain Management as well as the IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management.

EDUCATION
2005 Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Program in Management of Technology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
2001 M.S. in Electrical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
1999 B.E. in Industrial Electronics Engineering, Pune University, Pune, India

RESEARCH INTERESTS
Supply networks
Complex adaptive systems and chaos theory
Marketing-Manufacturing interface
Finance-Operations interface
Policy design for large scale networks
Sustainable Operations

AWARDS AND HONORS
2017 Nominated for University-wide Distinguished Teaching Award for Innovation with Technology.
2016-Present Inducted as Research Collaborator at the Digital Innovations Lab, Indian Institute of Management, Bengaluru, India.
Invited to join Editorial Review Board of Journal of Operations Management.
2016 MBA faculty of the year, University of Washington Bothell, (TMBA)
2015 MBA faculty of the year, University of Washington Bothell, (LMBA)
2015 MBA faculty of the year, University of Washington Bothell, (TMBA)
2015 Nominated for University-wide Distinguished Teaching Award, (Finalist)
2014 Nominated for University-wide Distinguished Research Award, (Finalist)
2014 Nominated for University-wide Distinguished Teaching Award, (Finalist)
2014 MBA faculty of the year, University of Washington Bothell, (LMBA)
2014 MBA faculty of the year, University of Washington Bothell, (TMBA)
2013 MBA faculty of the year, University of Washington Bothell, (LMBA)
2012 MBA faculty of the year, University of Washington Bothell, (LMBA)
2009 MBA faculty of the year, University of Washington Bothell, (TMBA)
2007 Member of Center for Supply Network, Arizona State University, (invitation only)
2004 Society of Operations Management, 8th annual conference, best paper award, Mumbai, India
1999 University award for best undergraduate academic performance in industrial electronics, Pune, India

PEER REVIEWED JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS
Kauffman S, Pathak SD, Sen PK, and Choi TC. 2017. Jury Rigging: Evolutionary “Tinkering” and Supply Network Design in the presence of Unknown-Unknowns. Journal of Supply Chain Management (forthcoming).

Sawaya WJ, Pathak SD, Day J, and Kristal M. 2015. Sensing Abnormal Resource Flow Using Adaptive Limit Process Charts in a Complex Supply Network. Decision Sciences, vol 46(5), 961-979.

Pathak SD, Wu Z, and Johnston D. 2014. Towards a theory of coopetition of supply networks. Journal of Operations Management, vol 32(5), 254-267.

Balakrishnan PV (Sundar) and Pathak SD, 2014. Impeding the juggernaut of innovation diffusion: A production constrained model. Production Operations Management, vol 23(7), 1189-1197.

Jayaram J and Pathak SD, 2013. A Holistic View of Knowledge Integration in Collaborative Supply Chains. International Journal of Production Research, vol 51(7), 1958-1972.

Pathak SD, Pokharel M, and Mahadevan S., 2012. Hyper-Competition, Collusion, Free Riding or Coopetition: Basins of Attraction When Firms Simultaneously Compete and Cooperate. Non-linear dynamics, Psychology and Life Sciences, vol 17(1), 133-157.

Pathak SD, McDonald MP, Mahadevan S, 2010. A Framework for Designing Policies for Networked Systems with Uncertainty. Decision Support Systems, vol 49, 121-131.

Pathak SD, Dilts D.M, and Mahadevan S, 2009. Investigating population and topological evolution in a complex adaptive supply network. Journal of Supply Chain Management, vol 45(3), Wiley-Blackwell, USA.

Pathak SD, Dilts DM, and Biswas G, 2007. On the evolutionary dynamics of supply network topologies. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, vol 54(4), 662-672.

Pathak SD, Day J, Nair A, Sawaya WJ, and Kristal M, 2007. Complexity and adaptivity in supply networks: building supply network theory using a complex adaptive systems perspective. Decision Sciences, vol 38(4), 547-580, (2nd most cited paper, 2007-2012).

MANUSCRIPTS UNDER REVIEW
Dooley K, Pathak SD, Kull T, Johnson J, Rabinowich E, and Wu Z. Process network modularity and environmental performance. Journal of Operations Management (Revise and Resubmit, Fourth Round).
Pathak SD, Sen, PK, Miller J, and Jayaram J. Focal-Firm R&D, Commercialization, and Performance: Does Supply Base R&D Play a Role? Decision Sciences (Revise and Resubmit).
Pathak SD, Sharma A, Borah S, Adhikary A. Cohesiveness, Supply-base Clustering, and Centralization: Linking Supply Network Structure to sustainable firm performance. Production Operations Management (First Round).

RESEARCH GRANTS
2011 University of Washington, Bothell, Teaching and Learning Center Grant, $5400
2010 National Science Foundation, $311,205
2010 Darla Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC (Internal Research Grant), $1300
2004 Advanced Computing Center For Research and Education, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN (Summer research grant), $10,700

EMPLOYMENT SUMMARY
September 2014-Present, Associate Professor, School of Business, University of Washington, Bothell, WA
2008-2014, Assistant Professor, School of Business, University of Washington, Bothell, WA
2006-July 2008, Vanderbilt University (VU), Nashville, TN Lecturer (Engineering Management) and Senior Research Associate (Civil and Env Engineering)
2005-2006, Advanced Computing Center for Research and Education, VU, TN Research Associate and Lead Scientist, Lecturer (Engineering Management)
2001-2005, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN Research and Teaching Assistant, Instructor
1999-2001, Institute for Software Integrated Systems, VU, TN Research Assistant
1998-1999, Logic Power, Pune, India Application Development Engineer

EXTERNAL REVIEWER FOR ACADEMIC JOURNALS
2009-2012 Journal of Operations Management
2011-2012 Production Operations Management
2006, 2008, 2010-2012 Decision Sciences
2011-2012 Decision Support Systems
2012 International Journal of Production Research
2009-2012 Journal of Supply Chain Management
2008-2011 IEEE Transactions in Engineering Management
2008 IEEE Transactions in Systems, Man and Cybernetics
2004 Academy of Management Journal
2003-2004 Decision Sciences Institute conference, Washington DC
2004 European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI), Valencia, Spain

COURSES TAUGHT
BBUS 340 Introduction to Operations and Project Management
BBUS 509/522 Introductions to Operations Management
BBUS 500 Quantitative Business Methods

EXTERNAL SERVICES AND PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
2010 Session Chair, Decision Sciences Annual Meeting, San Diego, California
2009 Session Chair, Production Operations Management Society Annual Meeting, Orlando, Florida
2008-2009 Member of Recruitment Committee (Operations) for Business Program, University of Washington, Bothell, WA
2007 Web administrator, Reliability and Risk Management, National Science Foundation, IGERT Program, Nashville, TN
2006 Session Chair, Decision Sciences Institute, annual meeting, San Antonio, TX
2006 Session Chair, INFORMS, annual meeting, Pittsburgh, PA
2006 External project supervisor, for senior year undergraduate student in engineering at Victor Jubilee Technical Institute (VJTI), Mumbai, India
2006 Participant in the emergent scholar workshop at POMS, Boston, MA
2003 Mentor for undergraduate students in the IGERT multidisciplinary graduate program in Reliability and Risk Engineering and Management, Nashville, TN

Contact Information

pathaksd@uw.edu
(425) 352-3617
UWBB-217
CV

NSF Final Report
Supply Network Design and Product Environmental Performance

Grant Number: 1024752
Grant Dates: September 1, 2010 to August 31, 2012
Grant Amount: $311,205

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