Sam Savage Professor (Consulting) Management Science and Engineering Office: Terman 326 | Fax: 650-723-1614 Email: savage @ stanford.edu

Research

* Fields of Specialization:
Embedding analytical techniques in spreadsheets, data bases and the OLAP environment, Risk Minimization in Petroleum Exploration, Stochastic Modeling in Accounting and the Law.

* Interests:
Dr. Savage's primary focus is on removing what he refers to as the 'Algebraic Curtain' separating Management from Management Science. This activity lies in the domain of Informational Design.

His experience in consulting and expert testimony have led him to address the disparity between the way risk and uncertainty are treated in industry, and how the subjects are taught in the typical statistics course. Two recent publications in this area include “The Flaw of Averages” in the Harvard Business Review, and “Accounting for Uncertainty” in the Journal of Portfolio Management.

Current areas of interest include:
Stochastic modeling in Accounting and the Law
Stochastic Information Systems to effectively communicate risk and uncertainty between various parts of an organization.
Risk minimization in petroleum exploration, by extending portfolio optimization techniques from finance.

Although Savage received his Ph.D. in the area of Combinatorial Optimization, he has also done work in Combinatorial Obfuscation, developing the SHMUZZLE(tm) Puzzle , a tessellation based jigsaw puzzle inspired by M.C. Escher.

More Research

Flaw of Averages

Accouting for Uncertaintity

Prediction Markets