Thomas Sharkey, an assistant professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at RPI, has received a prestigious Faculty Early Career Development Award (CAREER) from the National Science Foundation (NSF). His five-year, $400,000 grant, titled “New Scheduling Models for Supply Chain Restoration, Construction, and Redesign,” will provide innovative optimization models and algorithms for problems in restoring supply chains after significant disruptive events, constructing supply chains to support humanitarian relief efforts, and transitioning supply chains to their next-generation redesign.The proposed optimization models are novel in the sense that a supply chain is operational as efforts are implemented to change its design. Professor Sharkey will provide new algorithms for these models by specifically analyzing the interactions of components within the supply chain and how they affect its performance. The results of this research will help lessen the economical and societal impact of extreme events, since decision-makers in supply chain restoration and construction will be able to analytically assess their existing strategies and the impacts of policy shifts in responding to these events. In addition, companies will be able to better understand how to integrate advanced manufacturing capabilities, including energy-efficient components, into their existing supply chains.Professor Sharkey joined the faculty of RPI in 2008 after receiving his PhD from the University of Florida.