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MHI names Heragu for lifetime achievement award in material handling education

Oklahoma State University professor wins MHEFI’s Reed-Apple Award for textbook, research, teaching.

heragu professor oklahoma state

The industry group MHI today named the most recent winner of its prize for lifetime achievement in material handling education, presenting the honor to Sunderesh Heragu, a college professor at Oklahoma State University.

Unveiled during MHI’s annual Fall Meeting, the Material Handling Education Foundation Inc. (MHEFI)’s Reed-Apple Award Winner honors lasting contributions to material handling education made by a person, company, or group.


According to MHI, Heragu has earned the award for his record of publishing more than 250 papers, authoring the foundational college textbook “Facilities Design,” and teaching more than 30 courses in the field at schools including Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Louisville. Heragu today is the Regents Professor and head of the school of industrial engineering and management at Oklahoma State.

His devotion to education has helped thousands of students become experts in material handling, warehousing, and facilities logistics, and his research has made large strides in the fields of warehouse management systems, real time data collection, and automation, MHI said.

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