Risk Analysis honors Industrial and Systems Engineering professor Jun Zhuang and PhD student

Jun Zhuang, Morton C. Frank Professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, and his PhD student, Sabiha Unal Eyi, have received the 2025 Best Paper Award from the journal Risk Analysis.

Their winning paper is titled, “Game-Theoretic Optimization on School Safety: Resource Allocation Against Strategic Atacks.” The research examined how schools can optimally allocate resources across two complementary layers of defense, physical security measures and mental health interventions.

“Our research was motivated by the rising frequency of school attacks — especially in the U.S. — and the growing realization that physical security alone is insufficient,” says Zhuang, also the associate dean of research in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

“Since about 43% of attackers are current or former students, addressing mental health and internal threats are equally critical,” says Zhuang. “Physical security offers the strongest short-term deterrent, while mental health programs reduce the chance that a threat emerges in the first place.”

The researchers say their goal is to provide a framework that clarifies investment strategies for schools so that leaders can make strategic decisions based on evidence rather than guesswork.

Ultimately, the findings conclude that school safety is not about choosing between physical security and mental health programs, but in understanding how they work together under real-world budget limits.

Risk Analysis is published on behalf of the Society for Risk Analysis, from which Zhuang received the 2022 Fellow Award and 2019 Chauncey Starr Distinguished Young Risk Analyst Award. He also received the 2017 Best Reviewer Award from Risk Analysis.

Zhuang and Unal Eyi were honored at the 2025 Society for Risk Analysis Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. in December 2025.