Rob Leachman is a Professor of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research at the University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Leachman is the author of more than 90 technical publications concerning operations management and productivity improvement. He has supervised 39 PhD dissertations in the area. He received the AB degree in Mathematics and Physics, the MS degree in Operations Research and the PhD degree in Operations Research, all from U. C. Berkeley, and has been a member of the U C Berkeley faculty since 1979. During the period 1991-2003 Dr. Leachman directed the Competitive Semiconductor Manufacturing Program at U C Berkeley, an interdisciplinary research project in which over 100 semiconductor fabrication facilities worldwide were benchmarked. Dr. Leachman is a one-time winner and a two-time finalist in the Franz Edelman Award Competition sponsored by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), as well as an INFORMS Felllow, recognizing his work to design and implement automated production planning and floor scheduling systems in the semiconductor industry.