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Dr. José L. Zayas-Castro is a professor in the Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida. Since his arrival at USF in 2002, he has served as a department chair, as an associate dean for research, and most recently as executive associate dean of the College of Engineering, as well in various leadership positions at the USF Nault Center for Entrepreneurship. Previously, he was a professor and a co-director of the diversity in engineering program at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri. He began his faculty career at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, where he led activities in manufacturing, innovation, and academic and research affairs.

Zayas-Castro’s main research interests are in health care systems engineering, manufacturing systems, engineering entrepreneurship, economic and cost systems, engineering education, and broadening participation in engineering across STEM and the health sciences. He has experience with small businesses as well as partnerships with industry, non-profit foundations, and international organizations. Zayas-Castro is a fellow of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers, a member of the Pan-American Academy of Engineering, and is also very active in the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science and the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers. Among numerous other awards, in 2006 he received the Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education; he has been recognized additionally for his mentoring, advising, and diversity initiatives.

Zayas-Castro received his bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from UPRM and his master’s in industrial and management engineering, master’s in business administration, and doctorate in management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.