Virginia C. and Joseph C. Mello Chair and
Professor
Education
- Ph.D./M.Sc. Industrial and Systems Engineering, Minor in Mathematics (2011), University of Wisconsin-Madison
- B.S. Manufacturing Systems Engineering, Minor in Mathematics (2006), Sabanci University, Istanbul, Turkey
Expertise
- Operations Research
- Data Science and Machine Learning
- Dynamic Programming and Reinforcement Learning
- Economic Modeling
- Empirical Analysis
- Healthcare Analytics
- Practice-Focused Research
About
Turgay Ayer is the Virginia C. and Joseph C. Mello Endowed Chair and a Professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he also serves as the Director of Business Intelligence and Healthcare Analytics at the Center for Health and Humanitarian Systems. In addition, Dr. Ayer serves as a Senior Scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and holds a courtesy appointment at Emory University School of Medicine.
Dr. Ayer’s research focuses on healthcare analytics, AI and generative AI in medicine, socially responsible operations, and practice-focused research. He has published over 80 peer-reviewed articles in top management, engineering, medical, and health policy journals. His work has also been widely covered by major media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, US News, NPR, and Fox News. In addition to his research, Ayer actively teaches courses on AI and healthcare to engineering, management, and medical students, fostering interdisciplinary education in these rapidly evolving fields.
Ayer's research has made a significant policy impact, notably changing blood collection operations for the American Red Cross nationwide, influencing lung cancer drug pricing and coverage decisions in the U.S. and U.K., optimizing distribution strategies for scarce hepatitis C treatment drugs in correctional health systems, and improving the allocation of medical surplus products to the developing world by a major medical surplus recovery organization.
In recognition of his contributions, Ayer has received numerous best paper awards and has been named a Bonder Scholar and an Edelman Laureate. His research has been supported by over $3 million in grant funding from various institutions, including the National Science Foundation.
Ayer is actively involved with INFORMS and has been a long-term member for over 15 years. He currently serves as a Department Editor for one of the flagship journals of INFORMS, Operations Research, in the area of Real-World OR Innovations. Additionally, he is a past president of the INFORMS Health Applications Society, the second-largest society within INFORMS.
Research
Dr. Ayer’s research focuses on healthcare analytics, artificial intelligence and generative AI in medicine, socially responsible operations, and practice-focused research. More specifically, his work centers on developing data-driven mathematical and computational models to support medical decision-making, inform health policy, and improve humanitarian and socially responsible operations. His career goal is to reduce human suffering through rigorous, data-driven research that delivers practical insights and informs pragmatic solutions to complex healthcare challenges.
Notably, Dr. Ayer’s research has had significant policy impact, including transforming blood collection operations nationwide through work with the American Red Cross. His research has also influenced drug pricing and coverage decisions in both the United States and the United Kingdom and reshaped how medical surplus products are allocated to developing countries. In addition, Dr. Ayer and his collaborators have provided data-driven evidence to support public health decision-making during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Ayer’s research has been published in leading engineering, medical, and policy journals and has been widely featured in major media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, Fox TV, The Washington Post, NPR, and U.S. News, among others.
Teaching
Dr. Ayer has a deep passion for integrating research and teaching and making an impact on students’ professional life by helping them with preparation for a career in the healthcare space. Given that the healthcare industry is the largest industry in the U.S. and yet the number of industrial engineers in this industry is extremely limited compared with many other industries, it is one of his biggest passions to prepare many students for placement in this industry to be the future leaders in shaping the industry. In line with this philosophy, he has created and taught several undergraduate and courses with an emphasis on Health Systems Engineering.
Awards and Honors
- Career Award, National Science Foundation 2015
- Seth Bonder Foundation Research Award 2012
- First Prize, INFORMS Doing Good with Good OR Competition 2011
- Second Prize, INFORMS MSOM Society Student Paper Competition 2011
- Finalist in INFORMS Decision Analysis Society Student Paper Competition 2011
- Recipient of the INFORMS Bonder Scholarship for Applied Operations Research in Health Services 2010
- Selected for the 2010 INFORMS Doctoral Colloquium 2010
- Recipient of the Society of Medical Decision Making Lee B. Lusted Award 2009
- Recipient of the INFORMS Interactive Session Award 2009
- Outstanding Presentation Award in the Informatics Session of 2008 Annual Meeting of Radiological Society of North America (invited for publication in RadioGraphics) 2008
- Paul Carbone Prize for Best Poster in Cancer Control during 2nd Annual UW Carbone Comprehensive Cancer Center (UWCCC) Research Retreat 2008
Representative Publications
C Caglayan, T Ayer, & DU Ekwueme (2025), “Assessing Multi-Modality Screening Strategies for Women at High Risk of Developing Breast Cancer”, forthcoming, INFORMS Journal on Computation (IJOC). https://doi.org/10.1287/ijoc.2022.0373
J Xiao, T Ayer, J Chhatwal (2024), “ Periodic vaccination for post-pandemic management: Insights from and planning beyond COVID-19”, IISE Transactions on Healthcare Systems Engineering, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/24725579.2024.2340515
Z She, T Ayer, B Gokpinar, DR Hughes (2024), “Strategic Cross-Subsidization in Healthcare Capitation Programs: Evidence from Medicare Advantage”, MSOM, https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2023.0637.
C. Zhang, T. Ayer, C. C. White (2023) “Inventory Sharing for Perishable Products: Application to Platelets Inventory Management in Hospital Blood Banks”, Operations Research, 71 (5), doi.org/10.1287/opre.2022.2410
J. Vlachy, T. Ayer, M. Ayvaci, S. Raghunathan (2023), “The Business of Healthcare: Physician Integration in Bundled Payments”, MSOM, 25 (3), https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2023.1187.
JA McCandlish, T. Ayer, J Chhatwal (2023), “Cost-Effectiveness and Value-of-Information Analysis Using Machine Learning–Based Metamodeling: A Case of Hepatitis C Treatment”, Medical Decision Making 43 (1), 68-77.
She, T. Ayer, D. Montenara (2022) “Can Big Data Cure Risk Selection in Healthcare Capitation Programs?”, MSOM, 24 (6), 2797-3306, doi.org/10.1287/msom.2022.1127
A. Bonifonte, T. Ayer, B. Haaland, P. Wilson (M.D.) (2022), “An Analytics Approach to Guide Randomized Controlled Trial Design for Hypertension Management”, Management Science