Academy Members

Jadranka Skorin-Kapov is SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor at the College of Business at Stony Brook University in New York. She was born in 1955, in Pula. In 1977 she graduated in applied mathematics from the Faculty of Science at the University of Zagreb. After completing her studies, she began working at the University Computing Center. In 1983 she earned a master’s degree in mathematics with a thesis on quadratic integer programming. In the same year, she received a scholarship to pursue doctoral studies at the University of British Columbia in Canada and started doctoral program in operations research at the Faculty of Commerce and Business Administration. She completed Ph.D. in 1987 with a thesis on quadratic programming and polynomial running time algorithms, titled “Quadratic Programming: Quantitative Analysis and Polynomial Running Time Algorithms.” She was also appointed as a visiting professor at the same faculty.

In 1988, Jadranka Skorin-Kapov accepted a position as an Assistant Professor at Stony Brook University in New York. She was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 1993 and became a Professor in 1998.

While serving as a full-time professor, Skorin-Kapov enrolled in a doctoral program in the Department of Philosophy at Stony Brook University in 2000. In 2002, she earned a master’s degree in analytical philosophy, and in 2007, she completed her Ph.D. with a thesis on the phenomenology of surprise and aesthetic experience, titled “Beyond Anticipation: Exceeding of Expectation and Aesthetics.” After earning a doctorate in philosophy, Skorin-Kapov pursued third doctoral degree in the Department of Art in 2010. In 2012, she earned master’s degree with a thesis on the work of the painter Piet Mondrian, and in 2014, she completed her Ph.D. with a thesis on the filmography of Darren Aronofsky from 1998 to 2014, titled “On Darren Aronofsky’s Filmography: Obsessions, Addictions, and the Pursuit of Perfection.”

In 2015, Professor Skorin-Kapov was appointed as the Head of the Department of Management at the College of Business at Stony Brook University. To enhance her students’ education, she founded the Center for Integration of Business Education & Humanities (CIBEH) at Stony Brook University in 2015. The goal was to incorporate humanistic questions into the business curriculum, emphasizing personal and social responsibility in today’s complex world.

In recognition of her scientific work, Jadranka Skorin-Kapov received the prestigious SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities in 2016. The State University of New York (SUNY) is the largest and most extensive higher education system in the United States, with 64 centers. In 2017, she received another prestigious award, The Ideas Worth Teaching Award from the Aspen Institute, and her course “Business Ethics: Critical Thinking through Film” was named one of the top 20 business courses in the world by Quartz at Work.

With three doctorates in three different disciplines and internationally recognized work in each, Jadranka Skorin-Kapov demonstrates a Renaissance approach to science, which is unusual in a time of predominantly narrow specializations.

In the field of analytics and operations research, Professor Skorin-Kapov’s scientific work focuses on solving optimization problems in social and business contexts. Her work covers optimization problems in technology development, engineering, traffic network design, mechanical engineering, and manufacturing processes. Skorin-Kapov has received multiple National Science Foundation (NSF) grants for the development of heuristic optimization methods. Additionally, she has been a Fulbright scholar and received research scholarships from various universities, including the University of British Columbia (Canada), Stony Brook University (USA), and the Catholic University of Valparaiso (Chile).

In the social sciences, Jadranka Skorin-Kapov analyzes aesthetic experiences and professional and business ethics, which are highly relevant in the context of technological advancements and their impact on individuals and society. Her book “The Aesthetics of Desire and Surprise: Phenomenology and Speculation” addresses central themes in contemporary continental philosophy, including passion/desire, expectation, excess, rupture, transcendence, immanence, and surprise. Her book “The Intertwining of Aesthetics and Ethics: Exceeding of Expectations, Ecstasy, Sublimity” explores the interconnectedness of aesthetics and ethics. In the book “Darren Aronofsky’s Films and the Fragility of Hope,” Skorin-Kapov uses her knowledge of philosophy and mathematics to analyze the diverse filmography of Darren Aronofsky, described as a philosophical director due to the themes of life and death, addiction and obsession, sacrifice, and the fragility of hope. Jadranka Skorin-Kapov’s research on the integration of technology, philosophy, and art has resulted in her award-winning course and published book, “Professional and Business Ethics through Film: The Allure of Cinematic Presentation and Critical Thinking.” In this book, she combines technological and business topics with ethics and artistic expression, opening new horizons for creative thinking. In addition to her scientific work, Jadranka Skorin-Kapov writes poetry. In 1995, under her maiden name Boljunčić, she published a book of poetry in the čakavski dialect titled “Vajk z manon” (“Always with Me”).

Jadranka Skorin-Kapov has been a member of the Croatian Society for Operations Research (HDOI) since its establishment in 1992. She is also a member of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) since its founding in 1995. Through her work in operations research, Skorin-Kapov has been involved in organizing numerous conferences in Croatia and has delivered many lectures at Croatian conferences. Regarding Croatian journals, from 1997 to 2004, Skorin-Kapov was a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Computing and Information Technology (CIT), and from 1997 to the present, she has been a member of the editorial board of Mathematical Communications.

In the field of social sciences, Jadranka Skorin-Kapov examines the relationship between professional ethics and legislation in the activities of responsible professionals in fields such as architecture, geodesy, and law. Additionally, Skorin-Kapov investigates ethics and jurisdictional issues in the operations of local government units and relevant state bodies.

Professor Skorin-Kapov’s interdisciplinary approach to science, in which she combines analytics in problem modeling, considers the aesthetic experience of individuals, and questions the ethical consequences for both individuals and society, is of significance for addressing challenges and changes in both society and individuals.

Since 2020 Jadranka Skorin-Kapov is a correspondent member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in the Department of Social Sciences.