Safe and Sustainable Food Value Chains

Position
Assistant or Associate Professor

Unit
Fisher College of Business

Focus Area
Food and Agricultural Transformation

Description

The Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University is seeking applicants for a position as either an Assistant or Associate Professor in Safe and Sustainable Food Value Chains. This position is partially funded by Ohio State's Discovery Themes Initiative, a significant investment that leverages the university's expansive scholarly resources, creativity and shared commitment to make a global impact.

The successful candidate will be a key hire and leader in a multi-year trans-disciplinary initiative that seeks to attract established and emerging scholars to the university to address compelling challenges related to the Initiative for Food and AgriCultural Transformation. The appointee will provide thought leadership to this Discovery Theme and conduct innovative research on safe and sustainable value chain management, to help us achieve our vision of becoming the worldwide leader in developing conceptual models and practical examples of climate-resilient, secure and safe agricultural and food systems. Food value chain management involves the entire process of growing, delivering, processing, packaging, marketing, and preparing food. Multiple entities, from individual farmers, to processors, to retailers and consumers are involved in food value chains, along with those providing affiliated services such as intermediaries and third-party logistics providers. Further, government regulator and non-governmental organizations play a role in shaping the organization and execution of activities in food value chains.

The faculty member is expected to work with interdisciplinary teams composed of scholars and stakeholders in holistic research addressing big challenges in the development of safe and sustainable food value chains. The foci may include, but are not limited to: 1) technical and organizational processes, and government policies, to ensure food safety, from farm to table; 2) technical and organizational processes, and government policies, to improve the sustainability of food value chains; and 3) examination of, and approaches to changing, the consumers' valuation of transparency, safety, sustainability, and equity in food supply chains. At the value chain level, relevant metrics to consider include safety, sustainability, resilience, efficiency, quality, equity, and public acceptance. The faculty member will also have the opportunity to collaborate with faculty from other Discovery Theme Initiatives such as Data Analytics, Sustainability Science for Materials Innovation, and Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases.

The position will be in the Department of Management Sciences, and will involve both teaching and research. Our department focuses on managerial decision-making that is relevant to service and manufacturing operations and global supply chains. This focus is apparent in both scholarship and teaching. Our research reflects faculty expertise in the areas of managerial decision-making and process and systems performance improvement that is published in highly regarded research journals. Our faculty members are known as leaders in their respective scholarly communities.

Our Commitment to Diversity

The Ohio State University is committed to fostering a culturally and intellectually diverse environment and encouraging all members of our learning community to reach their full potential. We are responsive to dual-career families and actively promote work-life balance to support our community members through a suite of institutionalized policies. We are an NSF ADVANCE Institution and a member of the Ohio/Western Pennsylvania/West Virginia Higher Education Recruitment Consortium.