Dr. Ata Zare

“The price of light is less than the cost of darkness.” 
- Arthur C. Nielsen -

Dr. Ata Zare is an Assistant Professor in Business Intelligence at Nyenrode Business University. He is part of Nyenrode's Faculty Research Center for  Marketing & Supply Chain Management.

"Undoubtedly, our world is filled with events and issues that can be mathematically modeled; this logic of math has always instilled in me an incomparable passion."

Because information and data are critical components of technological advancement in all industries, mathematics is widely used as a data language.

Zare has a solid academic background in statistics, optimization, game theory, behavioral economics, and decision science. He employs data to gain valuable insights and solve problems. He has worked as a consultant in a number of industries, including transportation, supply chain management, e-commerce, and Fintech.

He primarily focused on operations management issues as a doctoral student under the supervision of professor Abouee, such as stochastic models, queueing theory, and analytics. During his postdoc, he became more interested in data-driven optimization and deep learning reinforcement learning. 

One of his research contributions has been the development of an efficient policy in service/production systems that takes into account consumer strategic behavior and risk attitude. Furthermore, he is expanding his research, teaching, and professional experience in business analytics and operations analytics due to its widespread application in technological advancement across all industries. Businesses can develop the most effective policies for improving business performance by implementing predictive and prescriptive analytics. Zare will conduct research in operations research, behavioral economics, and data analytics.

Zare regards learning and teaching as two sides of the same coin in terms of intellectual development. Zare has taught and acted as a teaching assistant for a variety of courses, including business analytics, operations analytics, stochastic models, operation research models, and simulation analysis, which has allowed him to become more involved and knowledgeable in analytics and problem-solving methodologies. Teaching, in his opinion, is an important and enjoyable aspect of being a faculty member.

International activities

• Speaker at conferences
• Sessional instructor

Interests

Art, Music, Swimming

Most relevant publications

• Abouee-Mehrizi, H., Zare, A.G., Konrad, R.A. (2021) Pricing in Service Systems with Rational Balking and Abandonment of Time-Sensitive Customers
• Zare, A. G., Abouee-Mehrizi, H., & Berman, O. (2017). Exact analysis of the (R, Q) inventory policy in a two-echelon production–inventory system. Operations Research Letters, 45(4), 308-314.