Ali Fattahi is an Assistant Professor of Operations Management at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. His research develops optimization-based decision-making frameworks for complex systems, with applications in energy management, sustainability, mass customization and personalization, and large-scale operational systems. His work combines large-scale optimization and approximation methods to deliver tractable and scalable solutions to real-world problems. A central theme of his research is the design of operational policies in energy systems, including demand response programs, electric vehicle charging, and distributed energy resources. His recent work also examines how to design contracts and incentives to coordinate decentralized energy resources.
His research has been published in leading journals such as Management Science and Operations Research, and has received multiple awards, including the 2024 INFORMS ENRE Best Paper Award in Natural Resources and the 2025 INFORMS ENRE Best Paper Award in Environment & Sustainability.
Education
- PhD, Decisions, Operations and Technology Management, University of California - Los Angeles
- MS, Industrial Engineering, Koc University
- BS, Industrial Engineering, Sharif University
Research
Selected publications
- Fattahi, A (2025) "Utilities’ Managed Home-Charging Programs for Electric Vehicles." Management Science. 71(12):10205-10224.
- Fattahi, A, Ghodsi, S, Dasu, S, Ahmadi, R (2024) "Flattening Energy-Consumption Curves by Monthly Constrained Direct Load Control Contracts." Operations Research. 72(2):570-590.
- Fattahi, A, Dasu, S, Ahmadi, R (2023) "Peak Load Energy Management by Direct Load Control Contracts." Management Science. 69(5): 2788-2813.
- Fattahi, A, Dasu, S, Ahmadi, R (2022) "Mass Customization and the Parts-Procurement Planning Problem." Management Science. 68(8): 5778-5797.
- Fattahi, A, Dasu, S, Ahmadi, R (2019) "Mass Customization and Forecasting Options' Penetration Rates Problem." Operations Research. 67(4): 1120–1134.
- Fattahi, A, Dasu, S, Ahmadi, R (2019) "The Weighted Non-Negative Least-Squares Problem with Implicitly Characterized Points." Operations Research. 67(4): 1106–1119.
- Fattahi, A, Turkay, M (2018) "A One Direction Search Method to Find the Exact Nondominated Frontier of Biobjective Mixed-Binary Linear Programming Problems." European Journal of Operational Research 266(2): 415-425.
Working papers
- Taghavi, A, Fattahi, A, Dasu, S, Ahmadi, R. "Preventing Catastrophic Wildfires: Annual Grid Inspection and Maintenance Plan."
- Fattahi, A, Li, Y, Sahin, O. "Customer-driven Bundle Promotion Optimization at Scale."
- Taghavi, A, Fattahi, A, Dasu, S, Ahmadi, R. "Fair and Flexible Scheduling for Dynamic Energy Load Control under Stochastic Demand."
Teaching
Current
- Advanced Business Analytics
Previous
- Innovation Field Project
Honors and distinctions
- INFORMS ENRE 2025 Best Paper in Environment & Sustainability Award (1st Place).
- JHU Carey General Research Support Fund Award, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025.
- INFORMS ENRE 2024 Best Paper in Natural Resources Award (1st Place).
- JHU Carey Dean’s Award for Faculty Excellence, 2021, 2022, 2023.
- JHU Carey Community Event Fund Award, Fall 2023.
- POMS College of Sustainable Operations 2018 Best Student Paper Competition – 2nd place
- POMS College of Supply Chain Management 2018 Best Student Paper Competition–Finalist
- Dissertation Year Fellowship. UCLA Graduate Education, 2018-19
- Harold and Pauline Price Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, 2016-17
- Price Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, 2016-17
- Ziman Center's Howard and Irene Levine Program, 2016-17
- Morrison Center for Marketing and Data Analytics, 2017-18
- Geoffrion Art's fund for applied research, 2015-17