Smith, right, receives her award from past IIE president Dr. Don Taylor of Virginia Tech at the organization's annual conference awards banquet on May 21 in Orlando

Alice E. Smith, faculty member in Auburn University’s Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, has received the Institute of Industrial Engineers’ (IIE) Albert G. Holzman Distinguished Educator Award, which honors educators who have contributed to the profession through teaching, research and leadership. Smith is the first woman and first Auburn faculty member to receive the award. She was recognized at the annual IIE conference awards banquet, held May 21 in Orlando. Smith was nominated by Harvey Wolfe, professor emeritus in the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh.

Smith has served as a principal investigator on more than $5 million of sponsored research in analysis, modeling and optimization of complex systems. Her research has been funded by NASA, U.S. Department of Defense, Lockheed Martin, Bombardier Transportation and the National Science Foundation. She has partnered with companies such as Ford, Daimler-Research and Chrysler Electronics to improve their manufacturing operations. Smith has also developed courses on neural networks, fuzzy systems and adaptive optimization. She holds a U.S. patent and several international patents, and her scholarly articles are highly cited works in their respective journals. She is a 1995 National Science Foundation CAREER award winner.

Smith served as chair of Auburn’s Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering from 1999 until 2011, as well as chair of IIE’s Council of Industrial Engineering Academic Department Heads and as president of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences’ Association of Chairs of Operations Research Departments. She has also served on IIE’s board of trustees as senior vice president for academics.

Contributed by Jennifer Steele