Faculty
Arnold Barnett is the George Eastman Professor of Management Science and a Professor of Statistics at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
His research specialty is applied mathematical modeling with a focus on problems of health and safety. Barnett’s early work on homicide was presented to President Gerald Ford at the White House, and his analysis of U.S. casualties in Vietnam was the subject of a column by William F. Buckley.
Barnett has written op-ed pieces for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, CNN Opinion, the Charlotte Observer, and USA Today. He received the President’s Award and the Expository Writing Award from INFORMS in 1996 and in 2001, and is a Fellow of INFORMS. Cited as “the nation’s leading expert on aviation safety,” Barnett was recognized with the 2002 President’s Citation from the Flight Safety Foundation for “truly outstanding contributions on behalf of safety.” MIT Sloan students have honored him on 14 occasions for outstanding teaching.
Barnett holds a BA in mathematics from Columbia College and a PhD in mathematics from MIT.
Fazel-Zarandi, Mohammad M., and Arnold I. Barnett. Risk Analysis. Forthcoming.
Barnett, Arnold and Jan Reig Torra. Journal of Air Transport Management Vol. 119, (2024): 102641.
Barnett, Arnold I., and Arnaud Sarfati. The Hill, October 12, 2023.
Barnett, Arnold I., and Arnaud Sarfari. Statistics and Public Policy Vol. 10, No. 1 (2023): 2199809.
Barnett, Arnold, Pengchen Han, and Gege Zhang. Chance, February 2022.
Barnett, Arnold and Keith Fleming. Health Care Management Science No. 25 (2022): 347–362.
Over 1,300 Sloanies and their guests returned to campus in early June to attend MIT Sloan Reunion 2023.
The recent U.S. presidential elections have led to debates about the effectiveness of pollsters and the Electoral College. Prof. Arnold Barnett will explore this topic and share his recommendations.
"The Alaska Airlines incident shows that, even when things go terribly wrong, other elements of the air-safety system typically avert disaster."
Aviation safety continues to get better. The chance of dying continues to go down by a factor of two every decade.
"The center of gravity near the wings is subject to less motion than the back of the plane."
"Worldwide flying is extremely safe, but in the United States, it's extraordinarily so."
