Schools with an Exceptional Faculty in Data Analytics and Business Intelligence
B-School Search
For the 2023-2024 academic year, we have 118 schools in our BSchools.org database and those that advertise with us are labeled “sponsor”. When you click on a sponsoring school or program, or fill out a form to request information from a sponsoring school, we may earn a commission. View our advertising disclosure for more details.
Data is a crucial part of decision-making and is found in abundance in almost every sector, be it healthcare, business, finance, marketing, defense, or aerospace. Thus, the demand for data analytics professors is on the rise. A degree in data analytics and business intelligence helps students hone their analytical skills and make sound business decisions with the help of data.
There are various online master’s programs offered in data analytics that working professionals can utilize to their advantage. These programs generally comprise 36 credits and provide students with an all-round knowledge of analytics. Some of the courses that students might study in a data analytics program include data analysis and decision-making, business analytics, financial analytics, accounting analytics, principles of management science, and marketing analytics. On completion of the program, graduates can apply to roles such as business analyst, data scientist, or even machine learning engineer, depending on one’s experience and academic background..
The following guide lists several notable data analytics and business intelligence professors. These faculty members are well-respected in their field, widely published in top journals, and members of professional organizations. They have been recognized for their teaching as well as research work.
There were four universities in particular which boast outstanding faculties in this discipline: Arizona State University, Ohio University, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the University of Southern California.
Arizona State University
Founded in 1886, Arizona State University was established before Arizona officially became a state. ASU is recognized today by US News & World Report as the nation’s most innovative university, more than doubling its research funding within the past ten years. Leading discovery in areas such as sustainability and space exploration, ASU has an interdisciplinary approach to business, economic development, and research that is focused on solutions. ASU’s Knowledge Enterprise Development units support the formation of groups that apply their learning in creative, service-oriented ways, such as the entrepreneurship + innovation group that assists communities (both within and outside of ASU) with business advice and resources for their entrepreneurial projects. The WP Carey School of Business is known for its Forward Focus curriculum and “Scholarships for All” approach to funding graduate business education.
-
-
Bin Gu, PhD
Arizona State UniversityDr. Bin Gu is a professor in the department of information systems at the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. He teaches business analytics strategy, finance and law, risk management, and emerging technologies. Currently, his research covers data analytics, online platforms, mobile commerce, user-generated content, IT-enabled business models, and online social media and social networks.
Dr. Gu has published his research in well-respected journals such as the Journal of Management Information Systems, Information Systems Research, and Decision Support Systems. He has won several awards, including the Journal of Retailing Top Cited Article Award and the Best Paper Award at the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Dr. Gu has a doctorate and master’s in managerial science and applied economics from the University of Pennsylvania, as well as a bachelor’s of engineering from Shanghai Jiaotong University.
-
Benjamin Shao, PhD
Arizona State UniversityDr. Benjamin Shao is an associate professor at ASU’s W. P. Carey School of Business. He teaches information systems courses such as the strategic value of IT, digital innovations and transformation, database management systems, network distributed systems, and information systems security. His research examines the impacts of IT, business and data analytics, software project management, ICT services, healthcare IT, IT supply chain interfaces, and IS security.
Dr. Shao has published his research in top journals, including the Journal of the Association for Information Systems, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, and the European Journal of Operational Research. Dr. Shao received the Huizingh Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award and the DISC Professor of the Year Award. He has a doctorate in management information systems from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a master’s in information management and computer and information sciences from National Chiao Tung University.
-
Zhongju Zhang, PhD
Arizona State UniversityDr. Zhongju Zhang serves as the co-director of the actionable analytics lab at the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. He teaches courses in business and data analytics, data and text mining, business analytics strategy, and information systems research methods. His research examines big data analytics, user behavior, and decision choices related to digital platforms and social media, design science, and the economic aspects of e-business operations and management.
Dr. Zhang’s research has appeared in many high-impact journals, such as the European Journal of Operational Research, the Journal of Management Analytics, and the Journal of Management Information Systems. He has won a Best Research Paper Award, MBA Teacher of the Year, and a Management Science Department Award, among others. He completed a doctorate in information systems at University of Washington School of Business, a master’s in information systems and computer science at the National University of Singapore, and a bachelor’s in computer science at Xi’an Jiaotong University.
-
Ohio University
The central mission of Ohio University is the personal and intellectual development of students. Set in the beautiful mountains of Appalachia, the university is dedicated to student-centered, transformative learning and diversity in all of its forms. Ohio University is home to three centers of excellence focused on energy and the environment, health and wellness, and cultural and societal transformation. The College of Business has an integrated, holistic approach to solving problems of entrepreneurship, within culturally responsive and socially responsible, ethical practice. The College has partnered with the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs to provide business education and assistance services, in addition to investment capital for start-ups. Notably, the Ohio University Innovation Center has created 100 companies, resulting in over 1,000 jobs.
-
Gabriel Giordano, PhD
Ohio UniversityDr. Gabriel Giordano is an associate professor of analytics and information systems at Ohio University. He teaches undergraduate courses in business intelligence and information management and an online MBA course on the strategic use of information. His research foci include computer-based deception, transformational enterprise systems, and computer-supported communication and virtual collaboration.
Dr. Giordano has published his research in journals such as Computers in Human Behavior, the Business Transformation Journal, and Communications of the ACM. In recognition of his teaching and work, he won the OU College of Business Excellence in Teaching Award and the FSU University Fellowship. Dr. Giordano completed his doctorate in management information systems from Florida State University and his bachelor of business administration in business computer systems from New Mexico State University.
-
William Young, PhD
Ohio UniversityDr. William Young serves as an associate professor of business analytics and director of the online MBA program at Ohio University’s College of Business. He teaches courses in business analytics, data analysis for decision making, operations management, prescriptive analytics, and predictive analytics. His current research centers on descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analytics.
Dr. Young has published his articles in several prominent journals such as the International Journal of Production Research, Expert Systems with Applications, Computers and Industrial Engineering, and Neural Computing and Applications. Notably, he has collaborated on projects funded by the National Science Foundation, Sogeti Netherlands, General Electric Aviation, and Ohio’s Department of Labor. Additionally, he has won numerous awards, including the Cincinnati-Dayton Outstanding Young OR/MS Award from INFORMS, as well as a teaching award and two College of Business Research Awards from Ohio University. He earned his doctorate in mechanical and systems engineering, his master’s in electrical engineering with a concentration in engineering management, and his bachelor’s in electrical engineering in digital systems with a minor in mathematics—all from Ohio University.
University of Illinois at Chicago
The University of Illinois at Chicago is recognized as one of the five most diverse campuses in the nation, and embraces the multiple perspectives of its culturally and ethnically rich student body and faculty. UIC is a leader in making higher education accessible to underrepresented students and is dedicated to the improvement of quality of life in urban areas worldwide. Among its institutional values are diversity, accessibility, and sustainability—all reflected in its Centers for Cultural Understanding and Social Change, Disability Resource Center, and Office of Sustainability. Douglas Hall houses the Liautaud Graduate School of Business Center and serves as the business school’s main classroom structure. Designed using Walter Netsch’s “Brutalist” style as a multipurpose classroom facility, Douglas Hall now features the CME Market Training Lab, providing students an experiential learning environment that simulates a financial services setting. This facility is regarded as an innovation in green architecture for its use of geothermal power, solar panels, low-VOC materials like recycled tires and glass, FSC-certified wood, and recycled rainwater.
-
Siddhartha Bhattacharyya, PhD
University of Illinois at ChicagoDr. Siddhartha Bhattacharyya is a professor of information and decision sciences at UIC. He teaches classes on business data mining, business systems analysis and design, intelligent decision support, management of information systems, and business computing. His current research focuses on data mining, business analytics, information management, business intelligence, and intelligent decision support.
Dr. Bhattacharyya has been widely published in prominent journals, including Social Networks, the MIS Quarterly, Decision Sciences, Decision Support Systems, IEEE Transactions, Evolutionary Computation, the Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, and the European Journal of Operational Research. In recognition of his excellent teaching, he won the Favorite MIS Professor Award and the Favorite MBA Professor Award. He completed his doctorate in decision and information sciences from the University of Florida and his bachelor’s of engineering in electronics and communications engineering from Birla Institute of Technology.
-
Aris Ouksel, PhD
University of Illinois at ChicagoDr. Aris Ouksel teaches information economics, decision sciences, and computer science at the University of Illinois. Some of the specific courses he leads include distributed computing and systems, advanced systems design and analysis, advanced database and knowledge management, and analysis of algorithms and data structures.
Dr. Ouksel’s research efforts center on business intelligence and information economics, database and knowledge management, electronic commerce and business gaming, and self-organizing complex systems. His research has been published in several influential journals such as the International Journal of Computer Systems Science, the Journal of Accounting and Information Technologies, and the Journal of Mathematics and Computational Organization Theory. He received the Best Paper Award at Grace Hopper Conference and Best Paper Award at the International Conference on Mobile Data Management, among others. He earned his doctorate and master’s in computer science and information economics from Northwestern University.
-
J. Christopher Westland, PhD
University of Illinois at ChicagoDr. J. Christopher Westland is a professor in the Department of Information & Decision Sciences at the University of Illinois–Chicago. He has been a faculty member at several other renowned institutions, including the University of Michigan, the University of Southern California, and the University of Science and Technology of China. In 2012, he was awarded high-level foreign expert status in China through the 1000-Talents Plan and is currently an overseas chair professor at Beihang University in Beijing. He also has professional experience in the U.S. as a certified public accountant and as a consultant in technology law across the U.S., Europe, Latin America, and Asia.
Notably, he has published numerous academic papers and of seven books, including Global Electronic Commerce, Global Innovation Management, Red Wired: China’s Internet Revolution, Structural Equation Modeling, and Financial Dynamics, among others. He serves as the editor-in-chief of Electronic Commerce Research and has served on editorial boards of several other information technology journals.
He holds a BA in statistics and an MBA in accounting from Indiana University, as well as his PhD in computers and information systems from the University of Michigan.
University of Southern California
When the University of Southern California admitted its first cohort of 53 students in 1880, Los Angeles was a frontier town without paved streets or electric lights. USC is now home to over 44,000 students pursuing their studies in higher education in one of the world’s largest metropolitan cities. A ranking conducted by The Wall Street Journal and Times Higher Education placed USC fourth on a list of the top 25 private and public US universities, in the category of environment—a measure of diversity and inclusion. This is reflected to some extent in the original articles of incorporation, filed the same year that inaugural class of 53 students began, which called for a university “open in every respect for the equal education of both sexes.” Seventeen percent of the freshman class entering in the fall of 2018 are first generation college students, another indication of progress towards inclusion. Among the ten centers of excellence housed in the Marshall School of Business is the Brittingham Social Enterprise Lab (BSEL), dedicated to the alleviation of poverty, as well as the Neely Center for Ethical Leadership and Decision Making.
-
Arif Ansari, PhD
University of Southern CaliforniaDr. Arif Ansari is a professor in the Department of Data Sciences and Operations at Marshall School of Business at University of Southern California, Los Angeles. He is an expert in big data business analytics, digital marketing, IOT, and intelligent systems. Dr. Ansari holds multiple US and international patents in real-time AI based machine learning systems. He also has given many keynote speeches on analytics and has developed analytical engines for the manufacturing, retail, and media sectors.
Notably, his “Digital Innovation for Predicting Viral Contents and Topics” was selected as one of the top five among 250 innovative ideas by Thomson Reuters at the GIES Summit for the 2016 Innovation 4 Impact competition in Dubai. He also completed an internship at Intuition Intelligence Inc. in spring 2018, where he was instrumental in building the “Viral Engine for Intuition Intelligence”—an accomplishment which helped the company get selected among the Top 10 Innovative Companies in Digital Media by AdTech Delhi and Dubai Lynx. -
Robertas Gabrys, PhD
University of Southern CaliforniaDr. Robertas Gabrys teaches clinical data sciences and operations at the University of Southern California. He teaches data analysis for decision making, business forecasting, applied time series analysis for forecasting, the essentials of data analysis and modeling, and managerial statistics. His research centers on big data analytics, business intelligence, econometrics, and data mining.
Dr. Gabrys has published articles in the Journal of Time Series Econometrics and the Journal of the American Statistical Association. He received the Excellence in Research Award, the Graduate Researcher of the Year Award, and the Dean’s List Award for Outstanding Scholastic Achievements. He earned his doctorate in statistics from Utah State University and his master’s and bachelor’s in applied mathematics with an emphasis on finance and insurance from Vilnius University.
-
Inga Maslova, PhD
University of Southern CaliforniaDr. Inga Maslova is a professor of clinical data sciences and operations at the University of Southern California. She has developed and taught courses in statistical learning, data analytics, business statistics, and visualization. Her research examines time series analysis, functional data analysis, business analytics, big data, finance, geophysics, and precision agriculture.
Dr. Maslova has been published in many well-respected journals, including the International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, the Journal of Irrigation & Drainage Engineering, and the Journal of Geophysical Research. She also has received several honors, including the Golden Apple Teaching Award for teaching excellence and the Mellon Fund Research Award. She earned her doctorate and master’s in statistics from Utah State University and her bachelor’s in mathematical science from Vilnius University.
Other Noteworthy Professors of Data Analytics and Business Intelligence
-
Ramnath K. Chellappa, PhD
Emory UniversityDr. Ramnath K. Chellappa serves as an academic director of the master of science in business analytics program at the Goizueta Business School at Emory University. He has taught courses in operations management, analytics, information systems, and economics. His research explores the economics of privacy, digital product pricing and piracy, electronic markets, and U.S. airline pricing, and management of information security and privacy.
Dr. Chellappa has published his research in the Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, the Journal of Management Information Systems, and the International Journal of Network Management, which has won him several Best Paper awards. He has a doctorate in management and master’s in petroleum engineering from the University of Texas, as well as a bachelor of technology in mining engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology.
-
Don Harter, PhD
Syracuse UniversityDr. Don Harter is the director of the business analytics master’s program at Syracuse University. He teaches MBA courses in business analytics and project management, as well as a doctoral seminar in research methods. Before joining Syracuse University, he taught at the University of Michigan Business School, Carnegie Mellon University, and BDM International. His research explores project management, software process improvement, and the effect of software improvements on personal issues.
Dr. Harter’s research has appeared in prominent journals such as IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Quality Control and Applied Statistics, and Management Science. Dr. Harter has received many laurels such as the Air Force Award for Excellence and the Business Administration Undergraduate Teaching Award. He earned his doctorate and master’s in information management systems from Carnegie Mellon University, his MBA from Ohio University, and his master’s in statistics and probability and bachelor’s in mathematics from Michigan State University.
-
Theodoros Lappas, PhD
Stevens Institute of TechnologyDr. Theodoros Lappas is an assistant professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology, where he teaches data and knowledge management, web mining, and relational databases. Before joining SIT, he worked in the computer science department at Boston University. His research includes scalable data mining, large-scale reputation systems, and machine learning algorithms for business analytics.
Dr. Lappas has published his articles in top journals such as Big Data, PLoS One, and IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering. He completed his doctorate in computer science at the University of California, Riverside and his bachelor’s in computer science at Athens University of Economics and Business.
Methodology
When selecting faculty for inclusion in this list of data analytics and business intelligence professors, BSchools considered the following standards:
- University Affiliation: The professor must be associated with and actively teaching in a data analytics and business intelligence program at an accredited university in the U.S.
- Publication: They have published his or her research extensively in peer-reviewed journals.
- Institutional & Peer Recognitions: They have been recognized for his or her excellence through teaching and publication awards, notable grants, and research funding.
- Professional Commitment: They have gone above and beyond in their leadership and professional contributions, such as becoming faculty deans, program directors, or leaders of professional organizations.