Professor Yu Amy Xia honored with Best Paper Award at the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers Annual Conference
The Raymond A. Mason School of Business is proud to congratulate Professor Yu Amy Xia, Floyd Dewey Gottwald Professor of Business, on receiving the Best Paper Award in the Supply Chain Management focus area of the journal of IISE Transactions at the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) Annual Conference, held in June in Atlanta, Georgia. The award is for the paper entitled “A Supply Chain Sourcing Model at the Interface of Operations and Sustainability,” which was the featured article in IISE Transactions.
This prestigious recognition from the IISE Transactions highlights the rigor, innovation, and real-world relevance of Xia’s research. Coauthored with a fellow business school faculty member, the award-winning paper is inspired by Apple’s supply chain transformation following a major sustainability incident. It addresses a classical multi-objective nonlinear problem that complicates sourcing decisions in supply chain management. By decomposing the problem into three key modules and leveraging its structural features, the authors develop an effective and efficient algorithm that generates a series of Pareto-optimal solutions, striking a balance between sustainability and operational performance in sourcing decisions.
“We knew the technical challenge was significant,” said Professor Xia. “To have our work acknowledged by a leading organization of industrial and systems engineers—especially as researchers from business schools—is both unexpected and deeply meaningful. This honor affirms the exactitude of our methods and the practical relevance of our findings. We are truly honored and humbled.”
IISE Transactions is the flagship Journal of IISE; its annual conference is one of the most competitive and respected gatherings in the industrial and systems engineering field. IISE Transactions draws submissions from top-tier scholars across academia and industry. Xia’s recognition in such a forum underscores the interdisciplinary strength and impact of research conducted at the Mason School.
“This is an outstanding achievement for Professor Xia and a reflection of the caliber of scholarship taking place at William & Mary,” said Dean Todd Mooradian. “To be recognized by a leading engineering society highlights how our faculty push boundaries and shape conversations that resonate well beyond traditional disciplinary lines. We are incredibly proud of her accomplishment.”
Professor Xia’s work continues to bridge the gap between technical modeling and managerial application, reinforcing the Mason School’s commitment to thought leadership in sustainability, operations, and global supply chain strategy.