Maria Rieders earned a M.Sc. degree in applied mathematics from the University of Ulm, Germany in 1984 and a M.Sc. and a Ph.D. in business administration from the University of Rochester in 1987 and 1990, respectively.
Maria Rieders is an adjunct full professor of Operations, Information and Decisions at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She has extensive experience teaching engineering and business students at the undergraduate and graduate level and has been awarded several teaching awards while on the faculty at Northwestern University. At Wharton, she has been teaching Ph.D. level courses in the areas of stochastic models, queueing theory, and dynamic programming since 2001.
Her research interests focus on stochastic models, in particular on computational methods for large-scale systems, with applications in the performance analysis of communication systems and production facilities Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, by Ameritech Corporation, and, through collaboration with students, by Motorola and Argonne National Laboratory.
Previous employments include a scientific staff position at the Allensbach Institute for Public Opinion Research in Allensbach, Germany (1984-1985), a faculty position at the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences at Northwestern University (1990-1995), a visiting researcher post at the Institute for Operations Research at the Universität Bonn, Bonn, Germany (1993) and industrial consulting engagements.