Batta named editor-in-chief of Socio-Economic Planning Sciences journal

By Nicole Capozziello

He has served as an associate editor of SEPS for the past 10 years. During this time, the journal has grown from a quarterly publication with about 100 submissions per year to a bimonthly journal with 1,000 submissions in 2020. The journal “strongly encourages contributions dealing with applications of quantitative models and techniques to important decision problems in the service and public sector . . . [particularly] to studies carried out in developing countries and economically emerging regions of the world.” 

“I am particularly excited at being selected for the role of editor-in-chief of SEPS, as the mission of the journal aligns well with my own personal research interests and I am delighted to be part of accelerating scholarship in the domain of quantitative analysis of public systems,” says Batta.

As editor-in-chief, Batta aims to enhance the international impact of the journal’s research, preserve its scholarly reputation, and continue the commitment to reviewing submitted papers in a timely fashion. He also looks forward to using the journal’s special issues to confront and connect quantitative research to important, current issues in society, such as the global COVID-19 epidemic.

“I congratulate Rajan on being selected for this important professional service position,” says Victor Paquet, professor and chair of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. “Under his leadership, I have no doubt that Socio-Economic Planning Sciences will continue to thrive as the leading scientific international journal dedicated to meeting social economic planning and development challenges in service and public sectors throughout the world.”

Batta, who is a SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering and associate dean for faculty affairs and diversity in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, has been a faculty member at the University at Buffalo since 1984. Many aspects of his own research overlap with interests of the journal, including crime modeling applications, modeling risk in transportation of hazardous materials, public facility location modeling, and modeling of various aspects of humanitarian logistics that occur after natural disasters. 

An excellent teacher and mentor, Batta has supervised or co-supervised over 100 doctoral and master’s students. He has won numerous awards for his research and scholarship, including the David F. Baker Research Award from the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers, the Koopman Award from the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, and three best paper awards from journals. He has published 150 articles in the top journals in his field.

Batta received his PhD in operations research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a bachelor of technology in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi.

He will officially begin his new role as editor-in-chief on January 1, 2021.