Ideas Made to Matter
8 steps to a stronger cybersecurity strategy
Use this framework to limit operational damage and monetary losses.
Nov 7, 2018
Fazel-Zarandi named Teacher of the Year second year in a row
May 9, 2025
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Mohammad Mehdi Fazel-Zarandi
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Mohammad Fazel‐Zarandi is a Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management. His research interests are in Artificial Intelligence and Data-Driven Decision-Making, with applications in the public and private sectors. His work has been published in flagship journals such as Operations Research, Management Science, and Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, has won the Best Paper Award, and has been featured by major media outlets including the Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Bloomberg.
He has taught various AI and analytics courses to MBA and undergraduate students at MIT and has received multiple teaching honors, including being named MIT Sloan Teacher of the Year twice (2024 and 2025), receiving the Outstanding Teacher Award in 2023, and the MIT Graduate Teaching Award in the same year. In recognition of his impact in the classroom, he was selected to deliver the 2025 MIT Sloan Last Lecture. He is also the recipient of the Frank E. Perkins Award for Excellence in Graduate Advising.
Before joining MIT, Mohammad was a Postdoctoral Associate and Lecturer at the Yale School of Management. He received his PhD from the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, in Operations Management, and his MS in Industrial Engineering, also from the University of Toronto.
Honors
Fazel-Zarandi and Barnett win best paper award
December 18, 2024
Fazel-Zarandi named MIT Sloan School Teacher of the Year
May 8, 2024
Fazel-Zarandi wins Outstanding Teacher Award
May 12, 2023
Publications
"Why Did US Urban Homicide Spike in 2020? A Cross-Sectional Data Analysis for the Largest American Cities."
Fazel-Zarandi, Mohammad M. and Arnold Barnett. Risk Analysis Vol. 44, No. 7 (2024): 1616-1629.
"Can Firms Benefit from Competition?"
Fazel-Zarandi, Mohammad, Ignatius Horstmann, and Frank Mathewson. International Journal of Industrial Organization Vol. 76, (2021): 102740.
"Almost Robust Discrete Optimization."
Baron, Opher, Oded Berman, Mohammad M. Fazel-Zarandi, and Vahid Roshanaei. European Journal of Operational Research Vol. 276, No. 2 (2019): 451-465.
"Truthful Cheap Talk: Why Operational Flexibility May Lead to Truthful Communication."
Berman, Oded, Mohammad Fazel-Zarandi, and Dmitry Krass. Management Science Vol. 65, No. 4 (2019): 1624-1641.
"The Number of Undocumented Immigrants in the United States: Estimates Based on Demographic Modeling with Data from 1990-2016."
Fazel-Zarandi, Mohammad, Edward H. Kaplan, and Jonathan S. Feinstein. PLOS ONE Vol. 13, No. 9 (2018): e0201193.
"Approximating the First-Come, First-Served Stochastic Matching Model with Ohm's Law."
Fazel-Zarandi, Mohammad, and Edward H. Kaplan. Operations Reseach Vol. 66, No. 5 (2018): 1423-1432.
Recent Insights
Ideas Made to Matter
Undocumented immigrant population roughly double current estimate
New research shows the population could have been mismeasured for decades.
Sep 21, 2018