Edward H. Kaplan, PhD obtained his BA from McGill University in 1977 with First Class Honors in Economic and Urban Geography. He proceeded to graduate study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he completed three masters degrees (in Operations Research 79, City Planning 79, and Statistics 82) in addition to his 1984 doctorate in Urban Studies. He currently serves as Professor of Management Sciences at the Yale School of Management, Professor of Public Health at the Yale School of Medicine and Director of the Law, Policy and Ethics Core at Yaleıs Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS.
Professor Kaplan is an expert in operations research and statistics who has developed novel methods for quantitatively evaluating HIV intervention programs. The author of more than 80 peer-reviewed publications, he co-edited the book Modeling the AIDS Epidemic: Planning, Policy and Prediction (Raven Press, 1994 with Margaret Brandeau). His applications of mathematical and statistical modeling to the study of HIV prevention were rewarded with the 1994 Lanchester Prize and the 1992 Franz Edelman Management Science Achievement Award, two of the top awards in the field of operations research. Professor Kaplan was twice awarded the Lady Davis Visiting Professorship at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (School of Public Health in 1994, Department of Statistics in 1997) where he studied AIDS policy issues facing the State of Israel. His study of the public health consequences of Israelıs ban on Ethiopian blood donors was reported on the front page of The Jerusalem Post. Kaplanıs current research links the operations of HIV prevention programs to epidemic outcomes, examines the cost-effectiveness of individual intervention programs, and proposes approaches to allocating HIV prevention resources.
The subject of special reviews by the General Accounting Office, the Centers for Disease Control, and the National Research Council, his research demonstrating the effectiveness of New Havenıs needle exchange program remains among the most creative and important examples of HIV program evaluation to date. Recognizing the public health impact of his needle exchange research in Connecticut, Kaplan was awarded the Connecticut Health Commissionerıs AIDS Leadership Award in 1991, the New Haven Foundationıs Ivy Award in 1991, and the Ira V. Hiscock Award of the Connecticut Public Health Association in 1997. His research has been cited numerous times by cities and states that have created legal needle exchange programs, and received widespread coverage in the media (including front-page coverage by The New York Times and an appearance on NBCıs Today Show).
Professor Kaplan teaches courses in Policy Modeling, Operations Research, and Data Analysis and Statistics at Yale, where he received the Alumni Teaching Award from the Yale School of Management in 1991. He has also taught and/or held visiting appointments at MITıs Sloan School, the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Survey Research Center at UC Berkeley, the Kennedy School at Harvard University, and the College of Management at UMASS/Boston.
He is the Area Editor for Policy Modeling and Public Sector Operations Research for the journal Operations Research, and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of AIDS, Health Care Management Science, and the Journal of Mathematics Applied in Medicine and Biology. He served on the Scientific Program Committee for the 12th World AIDS Conference in Geneva. Currently he is on the Advisory Board of Carnegie Mellon Universityıs Heinz School of Public Policy and Management, the Scientific Advisory Board of the American Foundation for AIDS Research, and the Institute of Medicineıs Committee on HIV Prevention Strategies.