Address

Detlof von Winterfeldt

Director Emeritus & Senior Research Fellow

CREATE

Detlof von Winterfeldt is the inaugural J.A. Tiberti Chair of Ethics and Decision Making and a Professor of Systems Engineering at the Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering in the Viterbi School of Engineering of the University of Southern California.  He holds a joint appointment as Professor of Public Policy at the Price School of Public Policy at USC. Since 2016 he also holds an honorary appointment as a visiting professor of Loughborough University.

In 2004 he co-founded CREATE, the first university-based center of excellence funded by the US Department of Homeland Security.  He served as CREATE’s director from 2004 to 2008 and he was reappointed to this position from 2015 to 2019.  In the interim, he was on leave of absence from USC as Director of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (2009-2012) and as Centennial Professor of the London School of Economics and Political Science (2008-2012). 

Throughout his academic career he has been active in teaching, research, administration, and consulting.  He has taught courses in statistics, decision analysis, risk analysis, systems analysis, research design, and behavioral decision research.  His research interests are in the foundation and practice of decision and risk analysis applied to the areas of technology development, environmental risks, natural hazards and terrorism. 

He is the co-author of two books, three edited volumes, and author or co-author of over 120 refereed articles and book chapters.

He has served on fifteen committees of U.S. National Academies, including an appointment to the National Academies’ Board on Mathematical Sciences and their Applications and as Chair of the Committee on the Study of Performance Based Safety Regulations.  He is an elected Fellow of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) and of the Society for Risk Analysis. 

In 2000 he received the Ramsey Medal for distinguished contributions to decision analysis from the Decision Analysis Society of INFORMS. In 2009 he received the Gold Medal from the International Society for Multicriteria Decision Making for advancing the field. In 2012 he received the distinguished achievement award by the Society for Risk Analysis. 

  1. 1976

    Ph.D. Mathematical Psychology

    University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
  2. 1971

    M.S. Psychology

    University of Hamburg
  3. 1969

    B.S. Psychology

    University of Hamburg

  1. 2004-2008; 2015-2019
    Director
    CREATE
  2. 2006
    Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering
    Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering, USC

  • 2016
    Honorary Visiting Professor
    Loughborough University, UK
  • 2015
    Best Paper Award in the journal Risk Analysis
    Society for Risk Analysis
  • 2013
    Best Publication Award
    Decision Analysis Society of INFORMS
  • 2012
    Distinguished Achievement Award,
    Society for Risk Analysis
  • 2011
    Honorary Research Scholar
    International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria (IIASA)
  • 2010
    Best article award for issue-linked papers in the journal Risk Analysis
    Society for Risk Analysis
  • 2009
    Gold Medal
    International Society for Multi-Criteria Decision Making
  • 2008
    Practice Award (Finalist)
    Decision Analysis Society of INFORMS
  • 2007
    Best article award in Decision Sciences in the journal Risk Analysis in 2007 (with Heather Rosoff)
    Decision Analysis Society of INFORMS
  • 2004
    Fellow
    Institute for Operations Research and Management Science
  • 2004
    Franklin Award for Outstanding Contributions to the School of Policy, Planning, and Development
    University of Southern California7
  • 2003
    Practice Award (Finalist)
    Decision Analysis Society of INFORMS
  • 2000
    Frank P. Ramsey Medal for Distinguished Contributions to the Field of Decision Analysis
    Decision Analysis Society of INFORMS
  • 2000
    Distinguished Service Award
    Society for Risk Analysis