Ph.D., University of Cincinnati
MBA, Wright State University
BS, Economics, Wright State University
James J. Cochran earned a BS in Economics, an MS in Economics, and an MBA from Wright State University in 1982, 1984, and 1986, respectively. He earned in Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of Cincinnati in 1997, and he has been a Visiting Scholar with Stanford University, the University of South Africa, the Universidad de Talca, Pôle Universitaire Léonard de Vinci, the University of Limpopo, and the University of Namibia. He holds honorary faculty appointments with the University of KwaZulu Natal and the University of Limpopo.
Dr. Cochran’s research focuses on problems at the interface of statistics and operations research, and he has taught a wide variety of statistics and operations courses from the introductory undergraduate level through Ph.D. seminars. He established an international teaching effectiveness colloquium series and has organized these events in Uruguay, South Africa, Colombia, India, Tanzania, Argentina, Kenya, Nepal, Cameroon, Australia, Croatia, Cuba (twice), Estonia, Fiji, Mongolia, Moldova, and Bulgaria. Dr. Cochran is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the Wiley Encyclopedia of Operations Research and the Management Sciences, Wiley Series in Operations Research and Management Science, and INFORMS Analytics Body of Knowledge. He has published fourteen book chapters and over forty research articles, and he is co-author of seven textbooks in statistics, operations research, and analytics. He has served as a consultant to a wide variety of corporations, government agencies, and not-for-profit organizations around the world. He was a founding co-chair of Statistics without Borders and a member of the founding committee for INFORMS Pro Bono Analytics initiative. He has also delivered keynote addresses to conferences in twenty-five nations. In 2008 Dr. Cochran received the INFORMS Prize for the Teaching of OR/MS Practice, in 2010 he received the Mu Sigma Rho Statistical Education Award, and in 2011 he was named a Fellow of the American Statistical Association. In 2014 he received the American Statistical Association’s Founders Award, in 2015 he received the Karl E. Peace Award for outstanding statistical contributions to the betterment of society, and in 2017 he received the American Statistical Association’s Waller Distinguished Teaching Career Award and was named a Fellow of INFORMS. In 2018 he received the INFORMS President’s Award, and in 2019 he received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Cincinnati.
Cochran, J.J. (2018). What is the Bootstrap? Significance, 15(6).
Kirtland III, J.A., Levy, M.S., Cochran, J.J., and Golnabi, S. (2018). Application of Finitized Power Series Distributions to Accelerated Variate Generation Part II: The Case of the Logarithmic Distribution, International Transactions in Operational Research.
Levy, M.S., Cochran, J.J., Golnabi, S., and Kirtland III, J.A. (2018). Application of Finitized Power Series Distributions To Accelerate Variate Generation Part I: Two Useful Algorithms, International Transactions in Operational Research.
Rossman, A. and Cochran, J.J. (2018). Interview with James J. Cochran, Journal of Statistics Education, 26(2), 149-159.
Maposa, D., Cochran, J.J., and Lesaoana, ‘M. (2017). Modelling Extreme Flood Heights in the Lower Limpopo River Basin of Mozambique Using a Time-Heterogeneous Generalised Pareto Distribution, Statistics and Its Interface, 10(1) (2017), 131-144.
Maposa, D., Cochran, J.J., and Lesaoana, ‘M. (2016) Modelling Nonstationary Annual Maximum Flood Heights in the Lower Limpopo River Basin of Mozambique, Jàmbá: Journal of Disaster Risk
Studies, 8(1).
Maposa, D., Cochran, J.J., and Lesaoana, ‘M. (2016). Modelling Nonstationary Extremes in the Lower Limpopo River Basin of Mozambique, Jàmbá: Journal of Disaster Risk Studies, 8(1).
Cochran, J.J. (2015) The Demise of the Scientific Method in the Petabyte Age of Business. Strategia, July 2015.
Maposa, D., Cochran, J.J., Lesaoana, ‘M. and Sigauke, C. (2014). Estimating High Quantiles of Extreme Flood Heights in the Lower Limpopo River Basin of Mozambique Using a Model Based
Bayesian Approach, Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 2, 5401-5425.
Zeid, A.A. and Cochran, J.J. (2014). Understanding the Crisis in Somalia, Significance, 11(1).
Maposa, D., Cochran, J.J., and Lesaoana, ‘M. (2014) Investigating the Goodness-of-Fit of Ten Candidate Distributions and Estimating High Quantiles of Extreme Floods in the Lower Limpopo River Basin, Mozambique, Journal of Statistics and Management Systems, 17(3), 265-283.
Cochran, J.J., Curry, D.J., Radhakrishnan, R., and Pinnell, J. (2014) Political Engineering: Optimizing a U.S. Presidential Candidate’s Platform. Annals of Operations Research, 215(1): 63-87.
Curry, D.J., Cochran, J.J., Radhakrishnan, R., and Pinnell, J. (2013) Hierarchical Bayesian Prediction Methods in Election Politics: Introduction and Major Test. Journal of Political Marketing, 12(4),
275-305.
Cochran, J.J., Levy, M.S., and Golnabi, S. (2013) Matching the Finitized Poisson Distribution to the Matching Distributions. Statistics and Probability Letters, 83(6), 1484-1489.
Brewer, L.M. and Cochran, J.J. (2013). August’s Child is …Favoured by Fortune! Significance, 10(3). Cochran, J.J. (2012). You Want Them to Remember? Then Make it Memorable! European Journal of
Operational Research, 219(3): 659-670.
Levy, M.S., Cochran, J.J., and Golnabi, S. (2012). A Moment Preserving Finitization Across the Power Series Family of Probability Distributions. Communications in Statistics – Theory and
Methods, 41: 653-664.
Cochran, J.J. and Curry, D.J. (2012). Frankenstein for President: Statistics and Operations Research come together to Create the Optimal Candidate for the U.S. Presidency. Significance, 9(5).
Bristow, D., Amyx, D.A., Castleberry, S.B., and Cochran, J.J. (2011). A Cross-Generational Comparison of Motivational Factors in a Sales Career Among Gen X and Gen Y College Students. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 31(1): 77-86.
Cochran, J.J., Levy, M.S., and Camm, J.D. (2010). Bayesian Coverage Optimization Models. Journal of Combinatorial Optimization, 19(2): 158-173.
Cochran, J.J. (2009). Pedagogy in Operations Research: Where have we been, where are we now, and where should we go? ORiON, 25(2): 161-184.
Golnabi, S., Levy, M.S., and Cochran, J.J. (2009). Finitizating Power Series Distributions. Statistics and Probability Letters, 79(17): 1829-1832.
Cochran, J.J. and Blackstock, R.C. (2009). Pythagoras and the National Hockey League. Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, 5(2).
Cochran, J.J. (2008). A Commentary on Polar Bear Population Forecasts: A Public-Policy Forecasting Audit. Interfaces, 38(5): 396-400.
Cochran, J.J. (2008). Operations Research and Sports: A Brief Overview. StatOR, 8(2).
Cochran, J.J. (2008). The Optimal Value and Potential Alternatives of Bill James’ Pythagorean Method of Baseball, StatOR, 8(2).
Lertwachara, K. and Cochran, J.J. (2007). Selecting Stocks Using Genetic Algorithms: A Case of Real Estate Investment Trusts, International Journal of the Computer, the Internet, and Management, 15(2): 20-31.
Lertwachara, K. and Cochran, J.J. (2007). An Event Study of Economic Impact of Professional Sport Teams on Local Incomes, Journal of Sports Economics, 8(3): 169-197.
Cochran, J.J., Darrat, A.F., and Elkhal, K. (2006). On the Bankruptcy of Internet Companies: An Empirical Inquiry, Journal of Business Research, 59(10-11): 1193-1200.
Camm, J.D., Cochran, J.J., Curry, D.J., and Kannan, S. (2006). Conjoint Optimization: An Exact Branch-and-Bound Algorithm for the Share-of-Choices Problem, Management Science, 52(3): 435- 447.
Cochran, J.J. (2005). Can you Really Learn Basic Probability by Playing Sports Board Games? The American Statistician, 59(3): 266-272.
Cochran, J.J. (2000). Successful Use of Cases in Introductory Undergraduate Business College Operations Research Courses, The Journal of the Operational Research Society, 51(12): 1378-1385.
Sorger, J.I., Kirk, P.G., Ruhnke, C.J., Bjornson, S.H., Levy, M.S., Cochran. J.J, and Tang, P. (1999). Once Daily, High Dose Versus Divided, Low Dose Gentamicin for Open Fractures, Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, 366: 197-204.
Sorger, J.I., Federle, D., Kirk, P.G., Grood, E., Cochran, J.J., and Levy, M.S. (1997). The Posterior Cruciate Ligament in Total Knee Arthroplasty, Journal of Arthroplasty, 12(8): 869-879.