Message From The Dean

Risk Management is increasingly becoming a strategic issue for decision makers. This is particularly true in technology intensive sectors, where innovation limits the use of past experience. The difficulty is further increased by the large investments needed, which imply very serious consequences in case of failure. Governments and public agencies funding large projects as well as industries focused on commercial markets are consequently more and more concerned by mitigating the risks of their decisions.

It is therefore most appropriate for Management Schools to increase their research and education efforts in this field.

We have taken the decision to create within the School of Management a new center, ICDRiA, International Center for Decision and Risk Analysis, devoted to this topic. I would like to stress the word "international". We strongly believe that in this age of globalization we must benefit from and share knowledge across the world. In line with this belief, one of the initial activities of the Center will be supported by a grant from the European Space Agency.

We will work towards this Center becoming a new example of interdisciplinary activity, in line with the vision of our University. The center will create a network of individuals and entities from academia, industry and government to exchange knowledge and experiences in risk management. We have much to learn from each other. This diversity across sectors and countries is a defining characteristic of our Center and will be reflected in the Advisory Board we will appoint in the near future.

- Hasan Pirkul
Dean, School of Management