The Department of Operational Sciences’ Logistics Division faculty members Lt Col Timothy Pettit, Ph.D., Lt Col Doral “Ned” Sandlin, Ph.D., Lt Col Joseph “Ben” Skipper, Ph.D., Dr. William Cunningham, and Dr. Pamela Donovan, along with AFIT logistics doctoral students Matthew McConville, Major Scott Elkins, and Paul Hartman, and operations research master student Megan Leiter attended the Annual 2010 Global Conference of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP), the field's leading professional organization, in San Diego, California, from 26-29 Sep.  Joining the AFIT contingent was Major Chris Randall, currently an Air Force-sponsored PhD student at The Ohio State University, who will be joining the AFIT Department of Operational Sciences as a faculty member upon graduation.  Attending the various conference seminars and meetings gave the logistics students an excellent opportunity hear and interact with leading military and commercial logisticians from around the world.  The students commented particularly on the benefits of exposure to a variety of corporate attendees discussing supply chain performance metrics and how they assist in aligning supply chain partners. 

There were several conference highlights for the AFIT group.  Maj Randall was selected to attend the Doctoral Symposium on 27 Sep as one of the Top 20 doctoral students from around the world.  The faculty also attended the associated Educators’ Conference, which provided the opportunity to meet top academics and discuss degree programs and current research.  Lt Col Tim Pettit presented his research on Supply Chain Resilience, following an introduction by Mr. Darrell Zavitz, Vice President for Supply Chain and Customer Service at Dow Chemical, who discussed the business case for Dow's investment in Tim's research.  This research continues with the Air Force Global Logistics Support Center (AFGLSC) and the Aeronautical Systems Center (ASC) into Life Cycle Resilience studies.  Also, during the conference, Lt Col Pettit was interviewed by Mr. Russell Goodman of SupplyChainBrain -- a monthly trade journal sponsored by CSCMP.  During the videotaped interview, which will be posted on the journal’s web site and transcribed into their journal, Lt Col Pettit presented AFIT's educational programs and highlighted AFIT's Supply Chain modeling expertise.