Amer Goel, a PhD student in the USC Marshall School of Business, has been named a recipient of the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP) award, one of the most competitive and prestigious honors available to early-career graduate researchers in the United States.
The program, which has recognized outstanding scientists and engineers since 1952, aims to cultivate the next generation of innovators who will advance science and engineering for the benefit of society. Goel’s fellowship funding is set to begin in Fall 2026.
A PhD student in Marshall’s Department of Data Sciences and Operations (DSO), Goel came to USC with undergraduate degrees in mathematics and linguistics from the University of Michigan. His mathematical background lies in combinatorics, probability, and geometry — a foundation that now drives his graduate research at the intersection of operations management, operations research, and quantum computing.
Goel’s winning proposal centers on a timely and technically ambitious question: How can the mathematical tools of operations management and operations research be adapted to take meaningful advantage of quantum computers? While quantum computing has generated enormous excitement across scientific fields — with potential applications ranging from optimizing complex logistics networks such as global shipping and freight routing, to advancing AI systems, to improving financial decision-making — practical pathways for applying it to real-world decision-making problems remain elusive.
That’s precisely the gap Goel aims to address. His work applies optimization and geometric modeling — a framework that, perhaps surprisingly, underlies much of the mathematics in operations research — to make quantum-compatible approaches more tractable and better understood.
“The hope is that geometry helps us look at [these problems] better and understand them in ways that might not be possible otherwise,” Goel explained.
He also emphasized that the project is grounded in real infrastructure. USC operates two functioning quantum computers, and part of the goal is to develop practical research that makes those machines more usable.
For Goel, the recognition carries meaning that goes beyond his individual achievement.
“It’s particularly fun being in a business school,” Goel said. “It’s really exciting to bring a very math-heavy, engineering-style award into the business school, because I think it lets people know that we do this kind of work too.”
Goel’s fellowship is a testament to the growing recognition that operations research and management science are not peripheral to the quantum revolution, but central to it. His work promises to help bridge the gap between quantum computing’s theoretical potential and its practical application to the kinds of complex, high-stakes decisions that define the field.
