Ariela Sofer                                                                           George Mason University

Professor Ariela Sofer is Divisional Dean of the Volgenau School of Engineering in the College of Engineering and Computing at George Mason University. Previously she served as Interim Dean of the School (Nov. 2020-May 2023) and as Associate Dean for Administration and Faculty Affairs of the School (May 2018-May 2023). Prior to that she served almost 16 years (Jan. 2002-August 2017) as Chair of the Systems Engineering and Operations Research (SEOR) Department at Mason. Dr. Sofer received the B.Sc. in mathematics, and the M.Sc. in operations research from the Technion in Israel. She received the D.Sc. degree in operations research from the George Washington University in 1984, and joined Mason upon graduation. Her major areas of interest are nonlinear programming, optimization in medical applications, and systems thinking. She has also been involved in various airport design problems.

Dr. Sofer is Vice President for Meetings of the Institute of Operations Research and Management Science (INFORMS). She was a member of the Executive Board of the International Federation of Engineering Education Societies (IFEES) (2018-2022). She was Chair of the INFORMS Fellows Selection Committee (2021) and co-General Chair of the 2020 INFORMS Annual Meeting. She has previously served (2017-2020 and 2022) as a member of the Board of Directors of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) as Director of Academic Matters. She has also served as Secretary of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) (2014-2017) and as Vice President for Sections and Societies of INFORMS. She has also served as Chair of the Association of Chairs of Operations Research Departments (ACORD), as Chair of the INFORMS Computing Society and as Secretary/ Treasurer of the SIAM Special Interest Group on Optimization SIAG/OPT. She has served as Associate Editor of the INFORMS journals Operations Research, and Management Science and as a member of the editorial boards of MOS-SIAM Book Series on Optimization, and the SEBoK Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge. She was co-chair of the SIAM Conference on Optimization held in 2002 in Toronto Canada, and co-chair of the 3rd International Conference on Model-Based Systems Engineering held in Fairfax, Virginia, 2010. She has been affiliated with the Simulation Group in the Department of Radiology, at Georgetown University Medical Center.

Dr. Sofer was elected Fellow of INFORMS in 2016, Fellow of IISE in 2018, and Fellow of INCOSE in 2022.

Books and Edited Volumes
Linear and Nonlinear Optimization, SIAM Books, 2008 (with Stephen G. Nash and Igor Griva).
Linear and Nonlinear Programming, McGraw Hill, 1996 (with Stephen G. Nash).
Operations Research in Medicine: Computing and Optimization in Medicine and Life Sciences,   Annals of Operations Research Volume 148 (with Eva Lee, eds.), Springer Netherlands. 2007
Compuatational Approaches to Medical and Life Sciences Applications   Annals of Operations Research Volume 119 (with Eva Lee, eds.), Kluwer Academic Publishers, March 2003.
The Impact of Emerging Technologies on Computer Science and Operations Research  (with Stephen G. Nash, eds.), Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1995.

Other Engineering Activities


Ariela Sofer
Professor
Divisional Dean
Volgenau School of Engineering
College of Engineering and Computing
MS4A3
George Mason University
4400 University Drive
Fairfax, VA 22030
703-993-1692
asofer@gmu.edu