Hesam Mahmoudi, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University
Email: hmahmoudi1@mgh.harvard.edu
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University
Email: hmahmoudi1@mgh.harvard.edu
My name is Hesam Mahmoudi and I am a postdoctoral fellow with joint appointments at Harvard Medical School and the Institute for Technology Assessment at Massachusetts General Hospital. I hold a Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Virginia Tech, an M.Sc. in Management Science, and a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Sharif University of Technology, Iran.
At the heart of my work is the dynamic modeling of complex systems to inform public policy, with a focus on public health, education, and research dynamics. Currently, my research is dedicated to lung cancer policy—studying how existing screening eligibility criteria influence outcomes and exploring the behavioral factors that shape participation in screening programs. This work is closely connected to national efforts through the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Intervention and Surveillance Modeling Network (CISNET) and the American Lung Cancer Screening Initiative (ALCSI). Earlier in my postdoctoral fellowship, I also contributed to modeling the opioid crisis, adding to broader efforts to guide public health policy.
My doctoral research examined how cancer centers develop and implement research and development strategies, uncovering systemic barriers to clinical trial efficiency. These findings helped build a deeper understanding of why progress in cancer research has often stalled despite ambitious initiatives like the Cancer Moonshot.
Beyond public health, I have also explored education policy, publishing studies on topics ranging from tuition inflation to strategies for cultivating complexity comprehension among engineers.
