Lawrence Wein has three main research interests: manufacturing, health care, and homeland security. Some of his scheduling research has been applied widely in the semiconductor industry, and he has incorporated some manufacturing issues into the analysis of internet auctions. He has used mathematics to analyze treatment protocols for patients with HIV, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease; the national transplant waiting list for kidneys; the selection of strains to include in the annual influenza vaccine and the design of proteins. His homeland security work concerns bioterrorism and border issues.

Professor Wein received his PhD in Operations Research from Stanford in 1988 and has taught the core MBA course in operations management throughout his entire career, both at MIT's Sloan School of Management from 1988 to 2002, where he was the DEC Leaders for Manufacturing Professor of Management Science, and at Stanford since 2002, where he is currently the Jeffrey S. Skoll Professor; Professor of Management Science. He also is a Senior Fellow at Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation.

His main research interests are in manufacturing, health care, and homeland security. In all three areas, he has published widely and impacted practice. His HIV work on drug-switching policies led to a successful multicenter clinical trial. His smallpox work influenced the George W. Bush administration’s post-attack vaccination policy; his anthrax work led to plans in Washington, D.C., to use postal workers to distribute antibiotics after a large attack; and his testimony before a congressional committee on his biometric analysis of the US-VISIT Program was instrumental in the switch from a two-finger to a ten-finger system. He has won several research awards and was Editor-in-Chief of Operations Research from 2000 to 2005. 

He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.