Cliff Ragsdale
Dr. Cliff Ragsdale is the Bank of America Professor in Department of Business Information Technology at the
Virginia Tech. He is on the editorial board of Decision Sciences, Operations Management Research, INFORMS
Transactions on Education, and the International Journal of Information Technology & Decision Making. He is a
Fellow of the Decision Sciences Institute.
Professor Ragsdale is an internationally recognized scholar and leader in the use of spreadsheets for modeling,
analyzing, and supporting business decisions. He is author the best-selling textbook Spreadsheet Modeling and
Decision Analysis, now in its fifth edition. This book was the first text to fully integrate Windows-based spreadsheet
software for operations research/management science education and is used in many of the leading business and
engineering programs in the U.S. and around the world.
Professor Ragsdale has published more than 40 research articles in journals such as Decision Sciences, Decision
Support Systems, Naval Research Logistics, Operations Management Research, International Journal of Physical
Distribution and Logistics Management, OMEGA: The International Journal of Management Science, Computers &
Operations Research, and several other publications.
Dr. Ragsdale has served as a consultant to various organizations including: The World Bank, Dominion Energy,
Best Western Hotels, Advance Auto Parts, Deloitte & Touche, Darden Restaurants, Pella Windows, Best Western
Hotels, and other organizations. Dr. Ragsdale and his colleagues have developed a variety of spreadsheet-based
decision support tools for a diverse collection of problems including: asset optimization for natural gas trading
operations, real-time support for power generator dispatching decisions, multi-criteria decision support for
territory/district realignment problems, and the optimization of production, inspection, and delivery scheduling
operations.
Professor Ragsdale’s served the Decision Sciences Institute as treasurer, vice-president at large, coordinator of the
new faculty development consortium, chair of the instructional innovation award competition, proceedings
coordinator, and as chair and member of the investment advisory committee. He has also served the Southeast
Decision Sciences Institute in various positions.
Twenty top publications
Books
Spreadsheet Modeling and Decision Analysis: A Practical Introduction to Management Science, Fifth Edition
Revised, South-Western College Publishing, Cincinnati, 2008.
Selected Articles
"A Grouping Genetic Algorithm for the Blockmodel Problem," IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation,
Vol. 14, No 1, pp. 103-111, 2010. Co-authors: Evelyn Brown and Tabitha James.
"Mitigating Environmental and Density Risk in Global Sourcing," International Journal of Physical Distribution and
Logistics Management, Vol. 39, No. 10, pp. 861-883, 2009. Co-authors: Jason Deane and Christopher Craighead.
"Coordinating the Supply Chain to Cooperatively Reduce IT Security Risk," Operations Research Management,
Vol. 2, pp. 4-12, 2009. Co-authors: Jason Deane, Terry Rakes and Loren Rees.
“A Modeling Approach for Supporting Wireless Mesh Network Design Decisions,” European Journal of
Operational Research, Vol. 197, pp. 773-784, 2009. Co-author: Kevin Scheibe.
"Quality Inspection Scheduling for Multi-Unit Service Enterprises," European Journal of Operational Research, Vol.
194, No. 1, pp. 114-126, 2009. Co-author: Arthur Carter.
"Fashioning Fair Foursomes for the Fairway (Using a Spreadsheet-based DSS as the Driver)," Decision Support
Systems, Vol. 45, pp. 997-1006, 2008. Co-authors: Kevin Scheibe and Michael A. Trick.
"Data-Driven Classification Using Boundary Observations," Decision Sciences, Vol. 37, No, 2, pp., 247-262, 2006.
Co-authors: Deborah Cook and Chris Zobel.
"A New Approach to Solving the Multiple Traveling Salesperson Problem Using Genetic Algorithms," European
Journal of Operational Research, Vol. 175, pp. 246-257, 2006. Co-author: Arthur Carter.
"The Ordered Cutting Stock Problem," Decision Sciences, Vol. 35, No. 1, pp. 81-98, 2004. Coauthor: Christopher
Zobel.
"A Decision Support Methodology for Stochastic Multi-Criteria Linear Programming Using Spreadsheets,"
Decision Support Systems, Vol. 36, No. 1, pp. 99-116, 2003. Co-author: David Novak.
"A Decision Support System for the Electrical Power Districting Problem," Decision Support Systems, Vol. 36, No.
1, pp. 1-17, 2003. Co-authors: Paul K. Bergey and Mangesh Hoskote.
"Scheduling Newspaper Advertising Inserts Using Genetic Algorithms," OMEGA: The International Journal of
Management Science, Vol. 30, No. 6, pp. 415-421, 2002. Coauthor: Arthur Carter.
"A Spreadsheet-based Decision Support System for Wood Panel Manufacturing," Decision Support Systems, Vol.
29, pp. 207-227, 2000. Coauthors: Urs Buehlmann and Balz Gfeller.
"On Modeling Time Series Data Using Spreadsheets," OMEGA: The International Journal of Management Science,
Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 215-221, 2000. Coauthor: Donald Plane.
"Modeling Optimization Problems in the Unstructured World of Spreadsheets," OMEGA: The International Journal
of Management Science, Vol. 25, No. 3, pp. 313-322, 1997. Coauthor: Daniel Conway.
"Combining Neural Networks and Statistical Predictions to Solve the Classification Problem in Discriminant
Analysis," Decision Sciences , Vol. 26, No. 2, pp. 229-242, 1995. Coauthor: Ina Markham.
"An Optimization Model For Scheduling Withdrawals From Tax-Deferred Retirement Accounts," Financial
Services Review, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 93-108, 1994. Coauthors: Andrew Seila and Philip Little.
"Introducing Discriminant Analysis to the Business Statistics Curriculum," Decision Sciences, Vol. 23, No. 3, pp.
724-745, 1992. Coauthor: Antonie Stam.
"Mathematical Programming Formulations For The Discriminant Problem: An Old Dog Does New Tricks,"
Decision Sciences, Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 296-307, 1991. Coauthor: Antonie Stam.
"The Current State of Network Simulation in Project Management Theory and Practice," Omega: The International
Journal of Management Science, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 21-25, 1989.