Buyun Li, a 6th-year PhD Candidate in Operations Management and Decision Sciences (OM/DS) at the Kelley School of Business, is channeling the technical rigor of operations research into a deeply personal mission: to improve patient outcomes and healthcare system resilience. His research focuses on modeling the complex, repeated interactions between provider capacity and patient demand. But for Buyun, the commitment goes beyond models and math—it’s about giving patients their “dignity and quality of life back”.
Buyun’s academic path took a significant turn, ultimately leading him to Kelley. He initially began his academic life in the U.S., pursuing an MBA in Hospitality Management at Cornell University, with the goal of becoming a hotel operator. However, he soon developed a “passion for research,” driven by a strong curiosity about “how deeply things work” rather than just maximizing profit. He spent two years mastering foundational tools like mathematics, coding, computer science, and optimization.
The critical pivot to healthcare was rooted in a defining experience at the age of 18, while volunteering in a palliative care unit. He observed that effective pain management was key to restoring a patient’s dignity. When pain was controlled, patients were calm and even optimistic, able to “sing and dance”. When it was uncontrolled, they would lose themselves. This realization solidified his goal: to do research in Healthcare Operations to help patients and physicians work together.
Recommended by his Cornell advisor, Buyun explored the ODT faculty at Kelley, focusing specifically on the work of professors such as Jonathan Helm, Kurt Bretthauer, and Kyle Cattani. He immediately “clicked” with the department’s healthcare research agenda. Though he received three PhD offers, he chose Kelley because of the supportive culture. Buyun found that Kelley faculty, including his advisors, treated him as an equal and a collaborator. They insisted he use their first names, saying things like “Just call me Jonathan, just call me Kurt,” which was unique among the programs he interviewed with. He later drove 11 hours with his wife and parents from Ithaca, NY, to Bloomington, IN, and found the town to be “beautiful” and “very peaceful”.
Buyun’s extensive research, conducted over a six-year period, focuses on two critical streams. In Chronic Pain Management, the problem is a severe mismatch: 60 million patients suffer from chronic pain, but there are fewer than 4,000 specialists. His research established that involving pain specialists early on creates a virtuous cycle. Early intervention improves patient outcomes, reduces opioid reliance, and, crucially, reduces downstream utilization. This frees up capacity for more early interventions, solving the problem operationally. His follow-up paper aims to design optimal referral policies.
In Infection-Aware Nurse Staffing, Buyun addresses a pressing issue: healthcare workers are at least 10 times more likely to contract an infection during major outbreaks, resulting in up to a 20% workforce loss. By building a disease transmission network model, he identified a vicious cycle: high workload leads to more infections, which causes the remaining staff to shoulder an even heavier workload, resulting in further infections. The operational strategy is to stay on top of the disease and patient demand before the workforce becomes overwhelmed. Buyun ensures his research has real-world meaning by collaborating with three different groups, including two at IU Health (Dr. Nick Wong in Pain Management and Dr. Cole Beeler in Infectious Diseases) and a specialized pain group in Southern California.
Buyun credits the Kelley environment as the biggest factor in his success. He has one accepted paper, three papers under review, and two papers in development. He highlights Kelley’s system of pairing a senior faculty member (who ensures the research question is interesting and impactful) with a junior faculty member (who provides technical and mathematical support). This combination helped him learn both how to do research and what constitutes a good research question. Furthermore, with almost 80 PhD students across Kelley, the social and academic peer support is strong, providing invaluable tips and resources during the PhD degree process.
Buyun Li is seeking a faculty position where he can continue leveraging OM/DS tools to drive operational change in healthcare. His commitment remains focused on maintaining strong collaborations with physicians and nurse leadership to ensure his research insights are meaningful for day-to-day practice and contribute to the literature. A highly productive and technically skilled researcher, Buyun is ready to make an impact.