Sukran Atadeniz

Sukran Nilvana Atadeniz (formerly Kadipasaoglu) received her B.A. in Accounting and Finance from Bogazici University in Istanbul, Turkey, in 1983. After working as a financial analyst in one of the international banks in Turkey for two years, she moved to the United States for graduate studies and received M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Clemson University in South Carolina in 1987 and 1993, respectively. She joined the faculty at the Decision and Information Sciences Department, C.T. Bauer College of Business, University of Houston in 1993. After her promotion to associate professor in 1999, she went on sabbatical to work as supply chain consultant at Aspen Technology in Houston. 

During her sabbatical, Atadeniz worked as consultant to supply chain optimization projects of various global firms, received training on the SCOR model of the Supply Chain Council, worked with Aspen Technology’s proprietary supply chain optimization software, and SAP ERP Business Suite. After returning to the University of Houston, she continued to consult on contract with Aspen Technology Inc. for another year. In 2002, she initiated the Supply Chain Research Center, which she directed until 2008 and served as SAP University Alliance Coordinator at the University of Houston for eight years. She also served as vice president of education of the Houston Chapter of the American Production and Inventory Management Society (APICS). 

In January 2009, she moved to Istanbul and continued her academic career at Bahcesehir University, where she received professorship and served as chair of the Industrial Engineering Department. In February 2011, she moved to the position of dean of the School of Economics and Administrative Sciences at Istanbul Kemerburgaz University. Later, she transferred to Yeditepe University, where she served as dean of the faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences from 2013-2016. From October 2013 to April 2015, she also served as vice president of Yeditepe University. During the time she resided in Istanbul, Atadeniz taught several graduate and undergraduate courses in addition to her administrative duties, taught MBA courses at the Széchenyi University (Győr, Hungary, 2016) and served as member of Ph.D. committee at the Aalto University (Helsinki, Finland, 2017). She was the founding VP of the Round Table of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals and chaired the European Decision Science Institute 2012 Conference in Istanbul. She served as president of the European Decision Science Institute from 2012-2013 and has since been an active member of the EDSI Executive Committee. She also served as an active member of EDSI’s parent organization, the Decision Sciences Institute (USA), as member of the DSI Global Affairs Committee and, most recently, the Membership Committee. Atadeniz was the SAP University Alliance Coordinator for two years at Bahcesehir University and for over three years at Yeditepe University. She holds the SAP TERP10 certification (granted by SAP Germany) and served as a jury member for SAP EMEA quality awards in 2015 and 2016. 

In 2017, Atadeniz returned to the U.S. and joined the faculty in the department of management at Clemson University. A year later, in the fall of 2018, she joined the University of St. Thomas Houston, where she served as full time faculty until June 2020. She continues to teach operations and supply chain management courses at Clemson University, University of St. Thomas Houston, University of Houston Clear Lake, University of Houston and Rice University. 

Atadeniz’s research areas include operations management, production planning and control, quality management and, more recently, supply chain management. She has published her work in the Journal of Operations Management, International Journal of Production Economics, International Journal of Production Research, Computers and Industrial Engineering, International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management, International Journal of Quality and Productivity Management, International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Industrial Management and Data Systems, and the Production and Inventory Management Journal. She has actively participated/organized academic conferences and workshops held in North and South America, Europe and Asia.