Robert Winkler

Academic Area: Decision Sciences

Teaching / Research Interests

Risk Analysis, Decision Making Under Uncertainty, Probability Forecasting, Combining Forecasts, Bayesian Inference

Bio

Robert L. Winkler is James B. Duke Professor in the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University and also holds an appointment in the Department of Statistical Science at Duke. He is a member of the decision sciences area at Fuqua, and he served as Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Research from 1991 through 1997. Professor Winkler received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Prior to joining the Duke faculty in 1984, he was Distinguished Professor of Quantitative Business Analysis at Indiana University, and he has held visiting positions at the University of Washington, the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (Laxenburg, Austria), Stanford University, and several times at INSEAD (Fontainebleau, France and Singapore). 

Professor Winkler’s primary research areas include decision analysis, risk analysis, statistics, and forecasting. He has published more than 200 articles and several books, and has received support from the National Science Foundation and other sources. He was awarded the Frank P. Ramsey Medal for significant contributions to decision analysis and he has also been a recipient of the NCNB Faculty Award in the Fuqua School of Business. His research focuses on probability forecasting, the combination of forecasts, decision modeling, and Bayesian statistical models for inference and decision. He has held a number of editorial positions and has been an officer in several professional organizations. 

Professor Winkler has taught courses in statistics and decision analysis in Fuqua’s MBA and EMBA programs. He taught the statistical models course in Fuqua’s Global Executive MBA Program from the program’s inception in 1996 until 2010, and he was the recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award from the first GEMBA class. He also teaches a Ph.D. course in Bayesian inference and decision.