Soroush Saghafian joins University of Maryland after 11 years at Harvard

The AI and analytics researcher has taken dual Associate Professor appointments at the Robert H. Smith School of Business and Maryland’s Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute

Soroush Saghafian has joined the University of Maryland after 11 years at Harvard University

Soroush Saghafian has joined the University of Maryland in two faculty roles after 11 years at Harvard University, moving his research in AI, analytics and operations research into a new interdisciplinary setting.

Saghafian is now an Associate Professor at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business and at the Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute at Maryland, known as AIM. His LinkedIn profile lists both appointments as beginning in August 2026.

He spent more than a decade at Harvard, joining as an Assistant Professor in 2015 before becoming an Associate Professor in 2020.

Saghafian announced the move on LinkedIn, describing the two Maryland appointments as a way to pursue work across the areas that have defined his research.

“These two appointments at the University of Maryland will let me pursue the intersections that matter most to me and expand the reach and impact of the work I care about,” he wrote.

AI, analytics and public-impact research move to Maryland

Saghafian’s work spans AI, operations research, management science, statistics and advanced analytics, with much of it focused on applying those methods to public-sector and healthcare problems.

At Harvard, he founded the Public Impact Analytics Science Lab, or PIAS-Lab, which applies analytical methods to societal problems.

His work has included collaborations with hospitals around operational efficiency, patient flow, medical decision-making and healthcare delivery policy.

He has also taught Machine Learning and Big Data Analytics for solving societal problems and held research affiliations across several Harvard centers, including the Harvard Center for Health Decision Science and Harvard Data Science Initiative.

Before his Harvard faculty career, Saghafian completed a PhD in Operations Research at the University of Michigan. He has also held a visiting scholar position at MIT Sloan School of Management and previously served as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Mayo Clinic.

The University of Maryland appointments bring that background into two different parts of the institution.

The Robert H. Smith School of Business works across management education and research, while AIM is an interdisciplinary AI institute supporting faculty research, experiential learning and work around responsible and ethical AI across industry, government and society.

Saghafian references Harvard’s recent political environment

Saghafian said the decision to leave Harvard was not straightforward.

“I won't pretend this was a simple decision,” he wrote on LinkedIn.

He positioned the move around his next phase of research and collaboration, thanking colleagues, students, senior fellows and postdoctoral researchers from his time at Harvard before saying he was looking forward to working with colleagues across Smith, AIM and the wider University of Maryland.

His two Associate Professor appointments at Maryland began in August 2026.