Dimitris J. Bertsimas, Howard Raiffa and Thomas L. Saaty — three prominent members of the operations research community — were elected to the National Academy of Engineering. They were three of 74 new members and 10 foreign associates announced by NAE President Wm. A. Wulf, bringing the total U.S. membership to 2,195 and the number of foreign associates to 178.

Election to the National Academy of Engineering is among the highest professional distinctions accorded an engineer. Academy membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to "engineering research, practice or education, including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering literature" and to the "pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education."

Bertsimas, the Boeing Professor of Operations Research at MIT, was honored for "contributions to optimization theory and stochastic systems and innovative applications in financial engineering and transportation."

Raiffa, professor emeritus, Harvard University, was elected for "contributions to decision analysis, negotiation analysis and engineering decision-making."

Saaty, University of Pittsburgh's Katz School of Business, was recognized for "the development and generalization of the analytic hierarchy process and the analytic network process in multicriteria decision-making."

Jack P.C. Kleijnen has been appointed as a part-time professor in the Operations Research and Logistics group at Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR) in Wageningen (the Netherlands), starting Jan. 17. He will continue to be a professor at Tilburg University until his mandatory retirement at the age of 65 on Nov. 22. 9

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