Ph.D. Student Spotlight

Firat Kilci

Firat Kilci is a Ph.D. candidate in operations management, completing his dissertation under the supervision of Genaro Gutiérrez. Originally from Turkey, Kilci holds degrees in industrial engineering, operations research, and statistics. His research examines how data-driven insights can enhance decision-making in complex operations. In collaboration with a Fortune 100 company in the high-tech industry, Kilci studies how firms can forecast spare-part demand and design global service networks when demand characteristics are unknown and product life cycles are short. His work emphasizes the power of Bayesian demand learning to guide smarter inventory deployment decisions. In his job market paper, he examines how service networks should evolve over a product’s life cycle and quantifies the financial and operational gains from learning about demand as new information becomes available. Kilci will be on the 2025-2026 academic job market, and more information about his research, teaching, and background can be found at www.firatkilci.com