If you follow certain influencers on LinkedIn, you might have come across the term “forecasting academia” (or “applied forecasting academia”). If you’re not familiar with the field, you might not know who this refers to, so I decided to write a short post about it.
“Forecasting academia” refers to researchers working in the field of forecasting. IMHO, the term “applied” is redundant, as it’s hard to do pure theoretical forecasting research, especially if you want to publish in good journals. In fact, application was one of the core principles emphasized by the founding fathers of the field, Scott Armstrong, Robert Fildes, and Spyros Makridakis, when they established the International Institute of Forecasters (IIF) and launched the International Journal of Forecasting (IJF). This happened back in the 1980s, and since then, a vast number of researchers have contributed to the area. Many of them have attended the International Symposium on Forecasting, published in IJF and some have been recognized as the IIF Fellows.
I won’t attempt to list everyone, but I’d like to mention a few senior academics who, in my view, have had the greatest impact on the field. Of course, forecasting academia is much broader, encompassing thousands of researchers working in macroeconomics, supply chain, energy, finance, and more. My focus here is mainly on those related to supply chain (with a few exceptions).
As you can probably guess, this is my personal and subjective view. If you were to ask other forecasters, they might provide a different list, but the main names will be there. Not all of these forecasters that I list are on LinkedIn (or even alive today), but I encourage you to follow those who are still active. If you don’t see your name on this list, please don’t take offense – just add it in the comments! The list is in alphabetical order.
Here goes.
- Scott Armstrong
- Vassilios Assimakopoulos
- George Athanasopoulos
- George Box
- John Boylan
- Robert G. Brown
- Chris Chatfield
- John Croston
- James Durbin
- Robert Engle
- Antonio Garcia Ferrer
- Robert Fildes
- Everette Gardner
- Paul Goodwin
- Clive Granger
- Mohsen Hamoudia
- Philip Hans Franses
- Andrew Harvey
- David Hendry
- Michèle Hibon
- Charles Holt
- Tao Hong
- Rob Hyndman
- Gwillym Jenkins
- Anne Koehler
- Nikos Kourentzes
- Michael Lawrence
- Casey Lichtendahl
- Spyros Makridakis
- Ed McKenzie
- Kostas Nikolopoulos
- Dilek Önkal
- Keith Ord
- Emanuel Parzen
- Carl Pegels
- Fotios Petropoulos
- Pierre Pinson
- Ralph Snyder
- James Stock
- Aris Syntetos
- Len Tashman
- James Taylor
- Mark Watson
- Thomas Willemain
- Peter Young
So next time you see someone referring to “forecasting academia”, you’ll know who they’re talking about. Feel free to share this list to help others learn as well!
P.S. If you’re interested, I could write a few posts discussing the key contributions of some of these academics. Should I do that?