Mahyar A. Amouzegar is an Iranian-Americanmathematician,engineer,policy analyst, author, and academic. He became the 18th President ofNew Mexico Tech on April 15, 2024; he resigned on July 25, 2025.^[1][2]

Amouzegar research encompassesmodeling and simulation, optimization,logistics andsupply chain management,organizational studies andnational securitypolicy analysis.^[3][4]

Amouzegar is a Fellow of theInstitute of Mathematics and Its Applications, andInstitute of Combinatorics and Its Applications.^[5] He served as Editor-in-Chief for theJournal of Applied Mathematics and Decision Sciences^[6] and is an Associate Editor for theInternational Journal of Applied Decision Sciences.^[7]

Born in Iran to abookkeeper, Amouzegar grew up surrounded by literature. Each night, his father brought home a new book from the publishing house where he worked, filling their home with a variety of works. At age fourteen, in 1978, he left Tehran to live with his older sisters in San Francisco.^[8] Due to the political unrest leading to theIranian Revolution, his parents were unable to join him in the United States for over five years. During this period, he developed a writing habit, balancing his interest in literature with his aptitude for math.^[9]

Amouzegar pursued his higher education, earning a Bachelor of Science inApplied Mathematics fromSan Francisco State University in 1983. He then proceeded to obtain a Master of Science inElectrical Engineering at theUniversity of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1989,^[10] concurrently completing an Engineering Degree. During his master's studies, he focused onoperations research to address policy issues later completing his doctoral studies in Operations Research at UCLA, with a specialization in Nonconvex Optimization.^[11][12]

After obtaining his PhD, Amouzegar began his career as an Assistant Professor (Lecturer) atMassey University in 1995,^[13] teaching operations research and developing models and algorithms for nonconvex optimization problems. He then moved toCalifornia State University, Long Beach, serving as Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies from 2005 to 2011. From 2003 to 2006, he was a Senior Honorary Visiting Fellow atCass Business School,City University of London, and later served as President of the Western Decision Sciences Institute. Afterward, he was the Dean of Engineering and Professor ofSystems Engineering atCalifornia State Polytechnic University-Pomona from 2011 to 2017.^[14] Concurrently, he was a Senior National Security Policy Analyst for theRAND Corporation from 1998 to 2023. At theUniversity of New Orleans, he served as Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs from 2017 to 2024.^[15] He was appointed by the Governor to the Louisiana STEM Council in 2017 and served as the Freeport McMoRan Distinguished Professor.^[16]

Since 2019, Amouzegar has held the Hancock-Whitney Distinguished Professorship of Finance while also serving as Vice President forInternational Relations atAlpha Iota Delta and as a member of the Jefferson Chamber Education and Workforce Development Committee. In 2024, he became President of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.^[17]

Amouzegar's writing is influenced by his love of old movies, particularly 1940sscrewball comedies andfilm noir, as well as novels likeThe Godfather. He developed an appreciation forErnest Hemingway andGraham Greene, often writing to the music of operas like “Aida”.^[18] His first two novels,A Dark Sunny Afternoon andPisgah Road, explored the lives of two men navigating past love and drama.^[9]Hanya Yanagihara ofKirkus Reviews praised "Pisgah Road" saying the "plot sing with nostalgia and regret, beautifully capturing the narrator's struggles with his own vulnerability. The author's touch is light as his characters deny their feelings, to themselves and to one another, until the right circumstances finally allow them to speak… A capable portrait of grief, longing, and second chances."^[19] Among other works, he delved into the complexities ofintimate human relationships through the reminiscences of protagonist Donte, offering an exploration of how personal history shapes identity inDinner At 10:32.^[20] His 2021 novelThe Hubris of an Empty Hand presented eight stories on the themes of love, sacrifice, and the desire for remembrance and recognition, receiving numerous reviews.^[21][22][23] In 2026, Amouzegar co-authored the speculative science-fiction novelTomorrow Brings Joy: Elysium, a work exploring themes of memory, identity, and post-scarcity society, which was reviewed by Kirkus Reviews and Publishers Weekly.^[24][25]

Amouzegar's research has centered on optimization techniques and their application in solving complex problems across various domains, ranging fromenvironmental management tomilitary logistics and policy analysis.^[11]

Amouzegar has conducted research on linearbilevel programming and environmental optimization offering methodologies and strategic decision models. He introduced a method for generating test problems for linear bilevel programming, systematically selecting a distant vertex from the solution of the relaxed linear programming problem.^[26] His collaboration with Khosrow Moshirvaziri led to the development of two optimization models for hazardous waste capacity planning and treatment facility locations.^[27] Building upon this, he addressed environmental challenges through bilevel programming, particularly focusing on the solid waste management deficit in California's San Francisco Bay Area.^[28]

Amouzegar's research efforts have provided insights into the development of agile combat support systems. While examining Agile Combat Support (ACS) and mobility system design and evaluation, he alongside other researchers addressed trade-offs, resource requirements, and support options across scenarios, to establish a robust planning framework for future ACS.^[29] He then utilized an optimization model to evaluate different global forward support location (FSL) options for storing war reserve materiel, balancing land and sea-based FSLs to minimize peacetime costs while ensuring sufficient support for training.^[30] In related research, his publication, "Evaluation of Options for Overseas Combat Support Basing," presented an analytic framework and model for assessing overseas combat support basing options to ensure swift and efficient support for US forces in diverse deployment scenarios.^[31] He was also part of a 2015 technical report at the Rand Corporation which delved into the challenges faced by the US Air Force in maintaining secure air bases in the Pacific region due to potential threats from near-peer powers highlighting significant impacts on combat support and logistics requirements.^[32]

• 1998 – Fellow, Institute of Combinatorics and Its Applications^[5]
• 2000 – Fellow, Institute of Mathematics and Its Applications

• Amouzegar, M. A. (1999)."A global optimization method for nonlinear bilevel programming problems".IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Part B (Cybernetics).29 (6):771–777.doi:10.1109/3477.809031.PMID 18252356.
• Amouzegar, M. A.; Moshirvaziri, K. (2001)."Strategic management decision support system: An analysis of the environmental policy issues".Environmental Modeling & Assessment.6:297–306.doi:10.1023/A:1013398219772.
• Amouzegar, M.; Drew, J.; Tripp, R. S. (2010)."A simulation model for the analysis of end-to-end support of unmanned aerial vehicles".International Journal of Applied Decision Sciences (IJADS).3 (2).doi:10.1504/IJADS.2010.036101.
• Moshirvaziri, K.; Amouzegar, M. A. (2011)."A deep cutting plane technique for reverse convex optimization".IEEE Transactions, Systems, Man, Cybernetics B.41 (4): 2011.doi:10.1109/TSMCB.2011.2105265.PMID 21296710.
• Amouzegar, M. A. (2018). "Defence Practice: Military Logistics". In Galbreath, D. J.; Deni, J. (eds.).Routledge Handbook of Defence Studies. U.K.: Taylor & Francis Group Publishing.doi:10.4324/9781315650463.ISBN 9781315650463.OCLC 1019725895.
• Bodine-Baron, E.; Snyder, D.; Amouzegar, M. A. (2019).Cyber mission thread analysis, a prototype framework for assessing impact to missions from cyber attacks to weapon systems (Report). Rand.OCLC 1019725895.

• — (2016).A Dark Sunny Afternoon. Fountain Blue Publishing.ISBN 978-1628681611.OCLC 976413021.
• — (2017).Pisgah Road. Fountain Blue Publishing.ISBN 978-1628682069.OCLC 1014283391.
• — (2020).Dinner at 10:32. University of New Orleans Press.ISBN 978-1608011810.OCLC 1130047145.
• — (2021).The Hubris of an Empty Hand. University of New Orleans Press.ISBN 978-1608012213.OCLC 1313401878.
• — (2026).Tomorrow Brings Joy: Elysium. University of New Orleans Press.ISBN 978-1608013043.OCLC 1557606131.

• American mathematicians
• 21st-century American academics
• American engineers
• New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology faculty
• University of New Orleans faculty
• California State Polytechnic University, Pomona faculty
• San Francisco State University alumni
• UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni
• American writers
• Living people

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