Alan Abrahams

Biography

Alan S. Abrahams is Associate Director of the Executive PhD Program, responsible for recruiting and external relations.

He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Business Information Technology, Pamplin College of Business, at Virginia Tech, and a member of the Affiliated Faculty at the Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Center for Injury Research and Policy. 

Dr. Abrahams's primary research interest is in developing text analytic techniques for detecting product safety concerns. His research has analyzed consumer postings for multiple Fortune 50 and NYSE-listed retailers and manufacturers, and has addressed diverse industries including, amongst others, consumer products, home appliances, food, over-the-counter medicines, medical devices, and automotive.

Dr Abrahams is a Senior Editor of Decision Support Systems, and has published more than 50 peer-reviewed articles in diverse journals, including Decision Support Systems, Production & Operations Management, Risk Analysis, Safety Science, and others.

Dr Abrahams began his teaching career in the Department of Informatics at the University of Pretoria.  He subsequently taught undergraduate and MBA classes for in the Operations and Information Management Department at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.  He has taught on the Business Information Technology program at Virginia Tech since 2007, again at both the undergraduate and Executive MBA levels, and has advised 11 PhD candidates to successful completion, including 5 as Committee Chair or Co-Chair.  Dr Abrahams has also held a Bualuang ASEAN Fellowship from Thammasat University, Thailand.  

Dr Abrahams holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Cambridge, and has a Bachelor of Business Science degree with honors in Information Systems from the University of Cape Town.