Decision Scientist

As a decision scientist, Jeff Camm approaches his research with pragmatism. “I always start with a problem that industry has a hard time solving, and I help them solve those business problems by making better-informed decisions using data and mathematical models,” says Camm, Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and the Inmar Presidential Chair of Analytics at the Wake Forest School of Business.

“I’m focused on impact,” he continues. “I don’t want to spend time on problems that very few people care about. I want to see and understand how my research is implemented and leads to better decisions out there in the marketplace.”

For Camm, the distinction between data scientist and decision scientist is a significant one, with both playing vital roles in advancing research. In short, he says, “data scientists model data and decision scientists model decisions that have to be made.”

Camm’s scholarship, which has been featured in Management Science and Operations Research, as well as Science and other journals, is focused on optimization, modeling and algorithms. He has tackled problems ranging from how companies optimize product lines and supply chains to how governments should purchase lands to maximize biodiversity. “Data Science Quarantined,” a 2020 MIT Sloan Management Review article he co-authored, delved into how companies began to adjust their machine learning and predictive analytics models following the global COVID-19 pandemic. “As one manager said, ‘Our machine learning model did not adapt very well to six straight weeks of zero demand,” Camm says. “We wanted to learn from that experience for the future.” In keeping with that line of inquiry, one of Camm’s current research projects is focused on the analytics of resiliency. “Typically, companies want to maximize profits or minimize costs,” he says, “but the objective of a lot of companies now is to have a supply chain that can withstand the shocks that come from a recession or a pandemic or the outbreak of war, so that no matter what happens, they know their supply chain won’t break.”

As a decision scientist, it “pays to be humble,” Camm says. “I’ve worked on projects where people might traditionally say, ‘Here’s the answer.’ I’ve learned to say, ‘Here are the top choices’ and let the client or manager decide. My work is helping companies make informed decisions, as opposed to providing one answer.”

Camm, who was a math major as an undergraduate and earned a Ph.D. in management science, spent more than three decades at the University of Cincinnati. He joined the Wake Forest University faculty in 2015 for the opportunity to help craft and launch the MS in Business Analytics program. He especially appreciated the agility of the University, which welcomed its first students in the program just a year after his arrival. “We had the support and resources to move quickly, and now it’s about 130-135 full-time students a year,” he says. 

Wake Forest has been a good fit for Camm, his teaching and his scholarship in other ways, too. He is appreciative of the endowed Inmar Presidential Chair in Analytics that helps to support his research. “We follow the teacher-scholar model so teaching is mission critical,” he says, “but we also want to be scholars and thought leaders in our areas.” And he believes his research goal of helping people to make better decisions aligns well philosophically with Wake Forest University’s motto, Pro Humanitate, or “for humanity.” “You have to define what ‘better’ means, but the whole point is to ease the pain of tough decisions and to make the world better by making better decisions.”

Jeff Camm

Senior Associate Dean for Faculty; Academic Director of the Center for Analytics Impact; Inmar Presidential Chair in Analytics,; Professor

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