University of Pittsburgh

The Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business 

Prakash Mirchandani  358 Mervis Hall University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA 15260

email: pmirchan@katz.pitt.edu 
Phone: 412-648-1652
Fax: 412-648-1693

Biographic Profile:

Prakash Mirchandani is Professor of Business Administration at the Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh.  He has a bachelor�s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, a Post-Graduate Diploma in Management (MBA) from the Indian Institute of Management, and a Ph. D. in Management from the Sloan School of Management, MIT.  His prior work experience includes working with a large automotive manufacturer and as a management consultant.

Dr. Mirchandani has published in leading academic journals in the Management Science and Operations Management field.  These journals include Management Science, Operations Research, Mathematical Programming, Networks, Operations Research Letters, INFORMS Journal on Computing, European Journal of Operational Research, Production and Operations Management, and SIAM Journal of Discrete Mathematics.  He is an Area Editor for the INFORMS Journal on Computing, and is on the editorial boards of Telecommunication Systems and the International Journal of Mobile Computing.  He was awarded the 1990 Zenon S. Zannetos prize for the best Ph. D. thesis at the Sloan School of Management, MIT.  His research focuses on polyhedral combinatorics and heuristic optimization for integer programming, capacitated network design methodology for telecommunications and transportation, and topical issues in distribution networks and supply chain management.  He received the Institute�s Gold Medal for scholastic performance at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad in 1983. 

Dr. Mirchandani teaches courses in Decision Technologies in Manufacturing and Operations Management, Probability and Statistics, Distribution Networks and Supply Chain Management.  At the Katz School, he has developed executive education seminars as well as new elective courses for masters and doctoral students in these areas.  The 1999 the 2001 and the 2003 Katz full-time MBA students recognized him as the Outstanding Professor of the Year.  He has also been recognized as a finalist for the Outstanding Professor of the Year Award during the 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000 and 2002 commencement ceremonies.  He was a finalist for the 1996-97 and the 2001-02 University of Pittsburgh Chancellor�s Distinguished Teacher Award. 

Dr. Mirchandani has worked on several industry projects including (i) a joint industry-university sponsored project to assess the business practices and performance at South Western Pennsylvania companies, and to help improve the region�s competitiveness, (ii) the development of a decision support system to improve product offerings for a medium sized manufacturer, (iii) the analysis and improvement of process efficiencies at a loan processing center, and (iv) a demand forecasting project for a consumer product.  Previously, for clients in different industries, he has carried out/supervised several projects including the development of a large-scale production-planning model for a mining company, a long term forecasting study for automobiles, a systems design and computerization feasibility study, project monitoring system design, and a wage survey and job evaluation study.   He is a member of INFORMS, Sigma Xi and Beta Gamma Sigma.     

Selected Publications:

Journal Papers:

    1.      Magnanti, T. L. and P. Mirchandani, �Shortest Paths, Single Origin-destination Network Design and Associated Polyhedra,� Networks,        23 (1993) 103-121.