Maury A. Nussbaum receives David F. Baker Distinguished Research Award
The Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) awarded Professor Maury A. Nussbaum, graduate program director and assistant department head in the Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, with the David F. Baker Distinguished Research Award at the IISE Annual Conference and Expo in Arlington, Texas, in May.
This lifetime achievement honor recognizes outstanding researchers with longstanding and significant accomplishments benefitting practitioners, organizations, and other researchers. Nussbaum is the fourth faculty member from the department to receive the award.
Nussbaum’s work focuses on human factors engineering and ergonomics, including occupational biomechanics, work physiology and muscle fatigue, and consumer product design and evaluation. He has been a faculty member in the department since 1996.
In the last three decades, Nussbaum has contributed to a wide range of research projects and collaborated with companies and agencies across the world to promote workplace safety and efficiency. He has also received various other accolades within the past few years, including the Alumni Award for Excellence in Research and the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Service from Virginia Tech.
“[Almost] all of my papers have been collaborations with great faculty, industry partners, and students,” said Nussbaum during his acceptance speech. “I couldn’t have done much, not to mention receive this award, without them, their creativity, their hard work, and in many cases their continued friendship.”
Other faculty members and students from the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering also traveled to this year’s conference, and several students won recognition for their work.
Kasey Bounkong ’26 placed third in the James W. Barany Student Award for Excellence, which recognizes high-achieving student leaders who bring distinction to industrial engineering at their institution.
Ph.D. students DJ Gupta and Iman Naderi both received the Best Student Paper Award for the Manufacturing and Design Track and the Engineering Management Track, respectively.
Amanda Mizerak ’26, Shirish Misro ’26 , Grace Piscitelli ’26, and Jenna Cameron ’26 earned second place in the Capstone Senior Design competition for their project on Innova Plastic Plant Consolidations. Irma Adams ’27 and Austin Canuel ’27 came in first place in the Undergraduate Student Technical Paper competition for their paper “Sustainable Timber Supply Chain Optimization.”
Jennifer Van Buskirk ’95 gives a keynote presentation at the IISE Annual Conference and Expo. Photo courtesy of IISE.
Jennifer Van Buskirk ’95, ISE advisory board member and head of business operations at AT&T, served as one of three keynote speakers at the conference. In her presentation, she discussed her work within the telecommunications industry over the past two decades, as well as the evolution of wireless and broadband technology.
