The Daniels School of Business is pleased to announce the appointment of Michelle Xiao Wu, PhD, as executive director of the Data Science Center for Decision Making and research faculty in the school's Supply Chain and Operations Management Department.
Wu joins the center with a distinguished record of academic leadership and interdisciplinary research. Most recently, she served as co-director of the MIT Data Science Lab, where she helped advance cutting-edge research at the intersection of analytics, optimization and real-world decision-making. Prior to her time at MIT, she was an assistant professor at Washington State University's Carson College of Business.
She holds a PhD in Operations Management (minor in Economics) and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, as well as an MSc in Physics from Northwestern University.
Wu’s research focuses on operations management in the digital economy, with particular emphasis on e-commerce pricing and platform strategies, digital content release and information design, and the sharing economy and marketplace dynamics. Her work has been published in leading journals, including Management Science, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Journal of Management Information Systems, and International Journal of Production Research.
Wu brings extensive consulting experience across manufacturing, e-commerce, and brick-and-mortar retail. She has partnered with companies to develop implementable methods and data-driven strategies that improve pricing, inventory and operational decisions, turning advanced analytics into measurable business impact.
As executive director, Wu will play a central role in shaping the center’s research agenda, expanding industry partnerships, and advancing its mission to integrate predictive, prescriptive and generative AI into core business processes. Her appointment marks an important step in strengthening the center’s commitment to transforming data, models and advanced analytics into actionable decision intelligence for industry.
We are excited to welcome Wu and look forward to the leadership and vision she will bring to the Data Science Center for Decision Making.
Explore the homepage of the Data Science Center for Decision Making.
