CORS Vancouver

About Us

CORS Vancouver is a local chapter of the Canadian Operational Research Society based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

The group currently has more than 40 registered members who live and work in the Greater Vancouver area. Members come from a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines, including students, faculty members, and business professionals.

Seminars covering a wide range of OR topics, applications, and best practice are organised and hosted by the chapter, with these being free and open to all who wish to gain a greater knowledge of this exciting and useful field. A total of 3 to 4 seminars a year will be organised, and details of each will be posted on this website. Registration for events will be managed by the relevant links on the Events page.
The chapter also hosts a number of social events throughout the year. Some of these will be for members only, such as the Christmas Dinner, but others will be more informal and open to all.
Both the seminars and the social events provide a fantastic opportunity to meet other OR professionals, students, and academics in the Greater Vancouver area

The current CORS Vancouver Executive Board has 5 members. They are:

Taraneh Sowlati PhD (President) : Taraneh is an Associate Professor in the Department of Wood Science, Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia (UBC). She received her Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering/Information Systems from the University of Toronto in 2001. She teaches Industrial Engineering and Engineering Economics to undergraduate students at UBC. She initiated the Industrial Engineering Research Group at UBC where graduate students and research scholars work on research projects under her supervision. Taraneh has published several journal papers, presented her research at numerous national and international conferences, and reviewed many papers for scientific journals. Her research interests include mathematical programming, operations research, supply chain modeling and optimization, efficiency and productivity assessment, forestry, and biomass and bioenergy.

Abraham Punnen PhD (Vice President) : Abraham is a professor in the department of Mathematics at Simon Fraser University Surrey. He received his PhD in Operations Research from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur in 1990. His research interests include discrete optimization, approximation algorithms, metaheuristics, and applications of operations research in logistics, transportation, supply chain, scheduling, forestry, healthcare and medicine. For more information, please visit his website

Claudia Cambero MASc (Treasurer) : Claudia is a PhD student in the UBC Faculty of Forestry under the supervision of Dr. Taraneh Sowlati. She received her Industrial Engineering degree at the Queretaro Institute of Technology and a master degree in Quality and Productivity at the Monterrey Institute of Technology, both in Mexico. She has been director of the Industrial Engineering undergraduate program at the Monterrey Institute of Technology in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico and has teaching experience in Work Design and Measurement, Innovation and Statistical Engineering. She has worked as Quality Assurance Engineer at Colgate-Palmolive in Mexico, and at ASCO Aerospace in Canada. During her master, her research interests were focused on multi criteria decision making for the transferring of sustainable technologies to emerging markets. Her current research is focused on the environmental, social and economical optimization of the forestry biomass supply chain in Canada.

Greg Werker MEng (Programme Coordinator) : Greg is a postdoctoral fellow in operations research healthcare at the Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcome Sciences (CHÉOS) with an honorary appointment at the School of Population and Public Health at UBC. His research focuses on strategic planning in mental health and addictions treatment. Greg’s interests include health system optimization and innovation, network modelling of patient flow through treatment pathways, and the queuing theory and optimization tools that support these efforts. Greg’s PhD is from the Sauder School of Business at UBC. His BS and MEng degrees are in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering from Cornell University, and he has worked as a consultant and software engineer in various manufacturing sectors including food and beverages, semiconductor, and chemicals.

Mahmood Ebadian Ph.D. Candidate (Programme Coordinator) : Mahmood is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Wood Science, The University of British Columbia (UBC). He received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Industrial Engineering from Amirkabir University of Technology and the University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran. He is working on the development of a decision making support tool to optimize the design of supply chain for a large-sized biorefinery plant in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. His research interests include Supply Chain Management, Operations Research, Lean Manufacturing, Biomass and Bioenergy.