The Institute of Industrial Engineers presented the Award for Technical Innovation in Industrial Engineering to Professor Sunderesh S Heragu, the Mary Lee and George F Duthie Chair in Engineering Logistics at the University of Louisville, Kentucky.
The award is presented for innovative contributions to the industrial engineering profession.
"The institute has given only 18 research awards in the last 22 years," Heragu said.
The award was conferred at a special ceremony at the IIE's annual meeting in Vancouver, Canada. Dr Rajendra Pachauri, who chaired the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize-winning Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change, was also presented a Distinguished Achievement Award at the ceremony.
Dr Heragu is also director of the Logistics and Distribution Institute. He was professor of decision sciences and Engineering Systems at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.
He has taught at the State University of New York, Plattsburgh, and held visiting appointments at the State University of New York, Buffalo, the Technical University of Windhaven and the University of Twente in The Netherlands, and worked at IBM's Thomas J Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York.
He is principal investigator on several projects funded by the National Science Foundation and private industry. He has been principal investigator or co-investigator for projects totaling over $10 million.
He also serves as the site director of University of Louisville's Center For Engineering Logistics and Distribution, which is a multi-university, multi-disciplinary National Science Foundation sponsored Industry/ University Cooperative Research Center.
He is the author of a book titled Facilities Design and has authored numerous articles in journals, magazines, books and conference proceedings.
Dr Heragu is an IIE Fellow. He has received the 1998 IIE Transactions on Design and Manufacturing Award and IIE Transactions Award for Best Paper published in Feature Applications for a paper co-authored with his student.
He serves on the editorial boards of IIE Transactions, International Journal of Operations and Quantitative Management, Asia Pacific Journal of Operational Research, European Journal of Industrial Engineering, and International Journal of Industrial Engineering.
He is an alumnus of Malnad College of Engineering, Hassan, Karnataka. He earned his MBA from University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada and his PhD in industrial engineering from the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada.