Radhika Kulkarni, M.S. ’80, Ph.D. ‘81

Position: Vice President of Advanced Analytics R&D at SAS Institute Inc. (retired)

Dr. Radhika Kulkarni is an Advanced Analytics professional, active in the area of Operations Research, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. She recently retired after 35 years of leading various areas of analytics R&D at SAS Institute, Inc. For the last 10 years of her career, Kulkarni was the Vice President of Advanced Analytics R&D, overseeing software development in many analytical areas including Statistics, Operations Research, Econometrics, Forecasting and Data Mining. Kulkarni is an active member in the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) and serves on the Advisory Council of the School of ORIE at Cornell University, the Advisory Board of the Institute for Advanced Analytics at North Carolina State University and the Master of Science in Analytics Advisory Board at Georgia Tech. Dr. Kulkarni is a recipient of the Women in Operations Research and the Management Sciences (WORMS) Award and was recognized as an INFORMS Fellow in 2014.

Since her retirement, Kulkarni has been spending more time with universities and professional organizations increasing Data Science literacy and expertise (based on the student’s skills and interests) across a broad population of students. The primary goal is to motivate students to pursue more advanced degrees that will equip them to both work in industry as well as pursue innovative research in these fields. Kulkarni is active in the role of ambassador, evangelist and mentor in several universities. She also seeks to have a large impact across many different departments, schools, colleges and to inspire inter-disciplinary collaboration. Such collaboration is a key requirement for success in finding the right solution for critical business problems.

Radhika Kulkarni has a Master’s in Mathematics from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi and a Master’s (1979) and Ph.D. (1981) in Operations Research from Cornell University.