Martin Ernst, a pioneer of operations research who served as the ninth president of the Operations Research Society of America (ORSA, a forerunner of INFORMS) in 1960, died Dec. 17, 2001. He was 81.

A resident of Boston, Mr. Ernst was a long-time executive at Arthur D. Little Co. where he held a number of posts including director of its operations research section and manager of its management science division. Mr. Ernst was also at one time responsible for the research firmıs advanced information program, and he is credited with helping develop automated airline reservation systems.

Mr. Ernst, who joined Arthur D. Little in 1959, retired from the research firm in 1986, but he didn't retire from research. Instead, he continued to work as an associate of the Program on Information Resources Policy at Harvard University until a year before his death.

A native New Yorker, Mr. Ernst earned a bachelor's degree in physics from MIT and served as a civilian scientist with the U.S. military during World War II. After the war, he was named associate director of the Navy's Operation Evaluation Group.

Mr. Ernst's many contributions to operations research are recognized at the Miser-Harris Presidential Portrait Gallery (www.informs.org/History/Gallery/Presidents/ORSA/mernest_9.htm).