Steven O. Kimbrough

Steven O. Kimbrough is professor of operations, information and decisions, and professor of philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a decision scientist who specializes in computational methods for supporting and improving decision making. He teaches and does research on business analytics and modeling (see his book Business Analytics for Decision Making with H.C. Lau), interdependent decision making (see his book Agents, Games, and Evolution: Strategies at Work and Play), and decision modeling for energy and sustainability, and for redistricting. He received his advanced degrees, in philosophy (PhD) and in industrial engineering (MS), at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Dr. Kimbrough directs the Climate Decisions Lab at the University of Pennsylvania, which focuses on energy and sustainability policy-making at the local and global levels. He is co-principal investigator (with Rand Quinn) in the “Climate and Sustainability Policy Deliberation” project.

Dr. Kimbrough has long had an interest in policy matters. At the age of 21 he was appointed as a member to a state policy making and agency governance board in Wisconsin, the youngest person to serve in that capacity. Several years later, he was elected chair. Among other forms of policy involvement, he had at the time a successful lobbying business in Wisconsin. His policy foci today are mainly on redistricting and on the energy transition. On both topics, he is actively developing algorithms and computational decision support tools, as well as developing policies that will improve outcomes.

In 2012, he developed an algorithm that successfully discovered good redistricting plans for Philadelphia City Council. This work was part of a larger team effort on redistricting, which was recognized as a finalist in the 2012 competition for the Wagner Price of INFORMS. 


Dr. Kimbrough has had frequent grant support throughout his career, most notably as PI for the Coast Guard’s KSS project (ten years) and a multi-year project with DARPA’s Advanced Logistics Program.