Choice or chance: Turning randomness into reliability
About Professor Lincoln C Wood's research
Lincoln C Wood is Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management at the University of Otago, where he designs decisions for messy, high-stakes systems. His work brings together management science (optimisation, forecasting, simulation) with decision science (risk, judgement, and multi-criteria trade-offs) to help organisations act with confidence when conditions are uncertain.
Lincoln partners with public services and businesses to co-design practical improvements: clearer priorities, smoother scheduling and capacity, and decisions that are transparent to the people they affect. As an educator, he champions authentic learning: simulations, industry collaborations, and systems thinking that help students connect analysis to action. He has authored books and articles on methods that travel from paper to practice and serves in editorial and supervisory roles across the discipline.
His inaugural professorial lecture, Choice or chance? Turning randomness into reliability, makes the case for reliability by design. He explains how to learn from imperfect data, trial decisions safely, and build feedback loops that keep improving results, so organisations and the communities they serve experience the benefits in everyday work.
More information can be found here, including a link to the live streaming site:
https://www.otago.ac.nz/news/events/inaugural-professorial-lecture-professor-lincoln-c-wood
This lecture will be followed with light refreshments, tea, coffee & juice.
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