Rossetti Named 2012-2013 Imhoff Chair

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Manuel Rossetti

Manuel Rossetti, professor of industrial engineering, has been selected as the John L. Imhoff Chair in Industrial Engineering for a two-year period beginning in January 2012. Rossetti will be the fourth recipient to hold this title, and he plans to use the appointment to make significant contributions in three key areas: faculty programs leading toward teaching excellence, further advancement of the department’s global studies initiative for undergraduate students and graduate student development through the formation of a student chapter of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences.

This chair was established in 1983 to honor the memory of John L. Imhoff, founding head of the University of Arkansas department of industrial engineering.

“Dr. Imhoff was a role model to many and his influence is still alive today,” said Kim Needy, head of the department of industrial engineering. “He had a vision for global cooperation and understanding, excellence in teaching and research, and had a commitment to the success of students. I believe that he would be very excited about these initiatives and proud of Dr. Rossetti’s appointment to this chair that bears his name.” 

Rossetti received his doctorate in industrial and systems engineering from Ohio State University and has published over 85 journal and conference articles in the areas of transportation, manufacturing, health care and simulation. He has obtained over $3.4 million dollars in research funding. Rossetti teaches courses in the areas of probability modeling, discrete event simulation, object-oriented and database systems, transportation/logistics modeling, and inventory modeling.

Rossetti has served as the departmental ABET coordinator, chair of undergraduate studies and chair of graduate studies, and he is currently the associate department head. He was selected as a Lilly Teaching Fellow in 1997/98 and has won the University of Arkansas Industrial Engineering Outstanding Teaching Award in 2002, 2008, and 2011. He serves as an associate editor for the International Journal of Modeling and Simulation and is active in the Institute for Industrial Engineers, the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science, and the American Society of Engineering Education. He served as co-editor for the 2004 and 2009 Winter Simulation Conference and has been selected as the program chair for the 2015 conference. Rossetti is also the author of Simulation Modeling and Arena published by John Wiley & Sons Inc.