Elena Belavina is an Associate Professor at the SC Johnson College of Business. She collaborates with startups, established companies, and public agencies to study sustainable food systems and transportation. In collaboration with a leading Food-Tech company, her recent research examines the impact of adopting computer-vision-enabled tech on food waste in commercial kitchens. It also develops machine-learning-based classifiers for the detection of food-production problems. Previously, she studied how the grocery industry’s structure and pricing policies influence food waste, the environmental impact of online grocery shopping, and the design of bike-share systems. She has also studied sustainable sourcing, relational contracts, and supply network design including the role of supply chain intermediaries. Methodologically, her research involves holistic analysis of logistic and economic systems, econometric analysis of large datasets to advise on system improvements and policies, and machine learning.
Prior to joining Cornell University, Elena was on the faculty of the Booth School at the University of Chicago. She earned a Ph.D. from INSEAD, and bachelor’s and master’s degrees in applied mathematics and physics from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.