About

James Wilson has been a member of the Industrial and Systems Engineering faculty at North Carolina State University since 1991. He served as head of the department from 1999 to 2007. His research interests include probabilistic and statistical issues in the design and analysis of large-scale simulation experiments, such as modeling, estimation, and generation of stochastic input processes, analysis of output processes, and improving simulation efficiency using variance reduction techniques. He also focuses on optimization using multiple-comparison and search procedures and applying these techniques to the analysis of production systems. Wilson holds a Ph.D. from Purdue University obtained in 1979, an M.S. from Purdue University in 1977, and a B.A. from Rice University in 1970. He has received numerous honors, including being named the Top North American Researcher in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering in 2022, and has been recognized with awards such as the David F. Baker Distinguished Research Award and the IIE Transactions Best Paper Award. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Industrial Engineers and the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Statistics
• Mathematics
• Applied mathematics
• Stereochemistry
• Algorithm
• Internal medicine
• Simulation
• Emergency medicine
• Medical emergency
• Engineering
• Operations management
• Intensive care medicine
• Medicine
• Biochemistry
• Operating system
• Chemistry
• Botany
• Biology

Selected publications

• Britain’s First Net Zero: Turning the Lights On and the Railways Off 1953–73

  Enterprise & Society · 2025-03-03

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  This paper assesses a major transition in energy usage and distribution in the United Kingdom (UK) between 1953–73 as domestic coal gave way to electricity, and a centralized electricity generation and distribution system reached every home in the country. Our analysis significantly extends and reinterprets the business history of the National Grid by exploring the consequences of its completion. We argue that the National Grid facilitated the removal of the railways as an energy distribution network and enabled prototype “Net Zero” policies in the context of atmospheric pollution. We tie these themes together to conclude that the construction of the national grid was a major environmental success but removed an essential rationale for much of the rail network.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Implementing Discrete Event Simulation to Improve Optometry Clinic Operations

  2024-08-26

  preprintOpen access

  As the tempo of military operations slows, Army Medical Facilities are faced with a need to improve the efficiency of their clinics to provide timely service to the growing population of Soldiers who are spending more time at home station. Discrete event simulation was used to examine six scheduling and staffing policies for the Womack Army Medical Center’s Optometry Clinic with a goal of increasing the daily patient throughput of the clinic with consideration to patient waiting times. The best policy increased clinic throughput by eight patients a day, generating an additional $314,000 in Relative Value Units (RVUs) annually, while only increasing patient wait times by 26%. As a minimum, increasing the walk-in provider’s scheduled patient load by two enables the provider to optimally treat both scheduled and walk-in patients, with a $94,000 annual RVU increase. Implementation of these results will improve clinic performance, revenue, and increase Soldiers’ access to care.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• SQSTS: A sequential procedure for estimating steady-state quantiles using standardized time series

  Journal of Simulation · 2024-11-01 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author

  We develop and evaluate SQSTS, an automated sequential procedure for computing confidence intervals (CIs) for steady-state quantiles based on the simulation analysis methods of standardized time series (STS), batching, and sectioning. Using recent theoretical developments for STS-based quantile estimation in dependent sequences, we formulate the key steps in SQSTS for controlling the growth of the batch size on successive iterations of the procedure. The variance parameter associated with the full-sample quantile estimator is estimated by a combination of estimators that are asymptotically independent of each other and the full-sample quantile estimator with increasing batch size and a fixed number of batches. Extensive experimentation revealed that SQSTS performed well compared to its competitors in terms of estimated CI coverage probabilities; and it outperformed those competitors with regard to average sample-size requirements. Finally, we outline an extension of SQSTS for computing individual CIs for a set of selected quantiles.

  PublisherDOI

• Forging Resilience Through Supply Chain Collaboration: Insights from the Chinese Automotive Industry

  IFIP advances in information and communication technology · 2024-01-01 · 1 citations

  book-chapterOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A Fixed-Sample-Size Method for Estimating Steady-State Quantiles

  2023-12-10 · 2 citations

  articleSenior author

  We propose FQUEST, a fully automated fixed-sample-size procedure for computing confidence intervals (CIs) for steady-state quantiles. The user provides a (simulation-generated) dataset of arbitrary size and specifies the required quantile and nominal coverage probability of the anticipated CI. FQUEST incorporates the simulation analysis methods of batching, standardized time series (STS), and sectioning. Preliminary experimentation with the waiting-time process in a congested M/M/1 queueing system showed that FQUEST performed well by delivering CIs with estimated coverage probability close to the nominal level, even in unfavorable circumstances where the sample sizes were inadequate. In the latter cases and for very small samples for steady-state quantile estimation, the close conformance of the CI coverage probability typically came at the expense of loose CI precision.

  PublisherDOI

• A Sequential Method for Estimating Steady-State Quantiles Using Standardized Time Series

  2022 Winter Simulation Conference (WSC) · 2022-12-11 · 3 citations

  articleSenior author

  We propose SQSTS, an automated sequential procedure for computing confidence intervals (CIs) for steady-state quantiles based on Standardized Time Series (STS) processes computed from sample quantiles. We estimate the variance parameter associated with a given quantile estimator using the order statistics of the full sample and a combination of variance-parameter estimators based on the theoretical framework developed by Alexopoulos et al. in 2022. SQSTS is structurally less complicated than its main competitors, the Sequest and Sequem methods developed by Alexopoulos et al. in 2019 and 2017. Preliminary experimentation with the customer delay process prior to service in a congested M/M/1 queueing system revealed that SQSTS performed favorably compared with Sequest and Sequem in terms of the estimated CI coverage probability, and it significantly outperformed the latter methods with regard to average sample-size requirements.

  PublisherDOI

• Estimating Confidence Regions for Distortion Risk Measures and Their Gradients

  2022 Winter Simulation Conference (WSC) · 2022-12-11

  articleSenior author

  This article constructs confidence regions (CRs) of distortion risk measures and their gradients at different risk levels based on replicate samples obtained from finite-horizon simulations. The CRs are constructed by batching and sectioning methods which partition the sample into nonoverlapping batches. Preliminary numerical results show that the estimated coverage rates of the CRs constructed are close to the nominal values.

  PublisherDOI

• Geometric-Moment Contraction of G/G/1 Waiting Times

  Springer eBooks · 2022 · 7 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Mathematics
  • Applied mathematics
  PublisherDOI

• Improving chemotherapy infusion operations through the simulation of scheduling heuristics: a case study

  Health Systems · 2020 · 21 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Medicine
  • Emergency medicine

  Over the last decade, chemotherapy treatments have dramatically shifted to outpatient services such that nearly 90% of all infusions are now administered outpatient. This shift has challenged oncology clinics to make chemotherapy treatment as widely available as possible while attempting to treat all patients within a fixed period of time. Historical data from a Veterans Affairs chemotherapy clinic in the United States and staff input informed a discrete event simulation model of the clinic. The case study examines the impact of altering the current schedule, where all patients arrive at 8:00 AM, to a schedule that assigns patients to two or three different appointment times based on the expected length of their chemotherapy infusion. The results identify multiple scheduling policies that could be easily implemented with the best solutions reducing both average patient waiting time and average nurse overtime requirements.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Cytotoxic and non-cytotoxic cardiac glycosides isolated from the combined flowers, leaves, and twigs of Streblus asper

  Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry · 2020 · 21 citations

  • Chemistry
  • Botany
  • Stereochemistry
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R01AA008118

  NIH · $185k · 1992

• Collaborative Research: Effective Sequential Procedures for Risk and Error Estimation in Steady-state Simulation

  NSF · $210k · 2012–2015

• A Comprehensive Framework and Software for Simulation Input Modeling

  NSF · $140k · 1999–2002

Frequent coauthors

• David Goldsman

  Georgia Institute of Technology

  48 shared

• Christos Alexopoulos

  Georgia Institute of Technology

  44 shared

• V. Gene Erwin

  University of Colorado Health

  26 shared

• Natalie M. Steiger

  University of Maine

  26 shared

• Gerald E. McCleam

  Hawaii Department of Health

  25 shared

• Michael E. Kuhl

  Rochester Institute of Technology

  25 shared

• Emily K. Lada

  SAS Institute (United States)

  20 shared

• Russell E. King

  North Central State College

  16 shared

Awards & honors

• 2022 | Top North American Researcher in Industrial and Manuf…
• 2013 | David F. Baker Distinguished Research Award, Institut…
• 2011 | Distinguished Contributions Award, Association for Co…
• 2011 | IIE Transactions Best Paper Award in Operations Engin…
• 2009 | Faculty Award, NC State University Libraries