Darius Walczak is a principal research scientist and senior director at PROS. After completing an MS degree in mathematics at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Darius decided to pursue a PhD in the Sauder Business School at UBC. He was excited to apply his math skills to problems that people could relate to, such as figuring out the right price for an airline seat. Now, when Darius tells people what he does, they often react by stating “Oh, so you are the guy who is responsible for that expensive airline ticket I paid to fly my family home for Thanksgiving.” Darius then likes to explain the other side of the equation by responding “No, I’m the guy who is responsible for getting you that great deal to fly to Mexico!’”
After receiving his PhD, Darius joined PROS and is leading the science team that is responsible for RM and travel industry research. They are currently pursuing ideas that combine the predictive power of machine learning with causal inference thus enabling better interpretability and application of established optimization techniques. Darius enjoys working for a vendor because of exposure not only to a large number of airlines but to other industries as well: “I don’t work for one airline, I work for many airlines,” he explains. “I also work in many different industries that include business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) clients.”
Darius envisions a future in which airlines and other industries will be able to create and tailor customized and profitable offers to customers more efficiently and in real-time. He also sees RM and pricing becoming more established parts of e-commerce.
For students interested in RM, Darius recommends they take courses that will improve their analytical skills and expose them to a wide range of different methods so they can be more effective when faced with real-life business problems in need of a scientific solution.
Want to learn more about Darius? Check out his LinkedIn profile.