Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Shmuel S. Oren is the Earl J. Isaac Professor in the Science and Analysis of Decision Making in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research at the University of California at Berkeley and former Chairman of that department. He is an affiliated Professor in Environmental Science and New Energy Technology at Tsinghua University and on the faculty of the Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute. He is a co-founder and the Berkeley site director, of PSerc - a multi-university Power Systems Research Center sponsored by the National Science Foundation and industry members since 1996. He has also been a member of the California ISO Market Surveillance Committee.

Prior to his current position he was on the faculty of The Engineering Economic Systems Department at Stanford University and worked as a Research Scientist at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). At Xerox he co-developed the Market Analysis Model for high-speed laser printers that was an Edelman Prize finalist in 1980.

Dr. Oren has expertise in Operations Research, particularly optimization, and in mathematical modeling and analysis of economic systems. Over the last three decades he focused on the development of analytical models and tools and on the design and economic analysis of market mechanisms and pricing strategies, in the context of the private and public sector and in regulated industries, particularly electric power. His work on power systems optimal scheduling, transmission planning, auction design, congestion management, transmission rights, generation adequacy mechanisms and design of ancillary service markets was adopted in restructured electricity markets in the US and abroad and influenced market design and regulatory policy. His recent research focuses on integration of renewable energy resources, demand response the impact of environmental regulation and optimization of power systems dispatch under uncertainty. He was also a co-PI on a DOE ARPA-E funded project, aimed at pioneering topology control in electric power dispatch, through optimal transmission line switching.

He served as a consultant on market design issues, to private and public organizations in the electricity industry in the US and abroad including: ISO-NE, New Zealand Electro Corp., PG&E, Edison International, Entergy, Hagler Bailly Consulting Co., EPRI, Analysis Group/Economics, Brazilian Electricity Regulatory Agency (ANEEL), the Polish Transmission company (PSE), the Alberta Energy Utility Board, the Energy Division of the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC), the Bonneville Power Authority and the Colombia energy regulator (CREG). Between 2001 and 2009 he was a senior adviser to the Market Oversight Division of the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT), where he was involved in the design of the ERCOT market and between 2012 and 2015 he has been a member of the California ISO Market Surveillance committee. He was also member of a DOE task force on the National Transmission Grid Study and Is serving as a consultant to the Israel Public Utility Authority on restructuring the Israeli electricity industry. Dr. Oren also served as an expert witness appearing before FERC on behalf of the Bay Area Rapid Transit and on behalf of Pacific Corp. 

Dr. Oren has published on the subjects of numerical optimization, nonlinear pricing and the application of such pricing in the context of telecommunications and electric power, incentive design, bidding, transmission pricing, electricity market restructuring, and has given numerous invited public lectures and tutorials worldwide on subjects addressing electric power markets. 

He hold B.Sc and M.Sc degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the Technion in Israel and M.S. and Ph.D degrees in Engineering Economic Systems from Stanford University. He is a Life Fellow of the IEEE, Fellow of INFORMS and member of the National Academy of Engineering.