Posted: 6/15/03
INFORMS Awards Recognize Professional Excellence
and Contributions to Society
By Nicholas G. Hall
What is great OR/MS? Is it a deep theoretical result that resolves a longstanding open question? Is it an innovative and widely used textbook? Is it an implementation of OR/MS methodology that saves a company millions of dollars? Is it a career in public service, solving important social problems? Great OR/MS can be any of these, and many other things besides. In order to recognize achievements like these, INFORMS has created a variety of professional awards. Among them are: the Edelman Award, which recognizes excellence in OR/MS practice; the von Neumann Prize, which recognizes sustained intellectual leadership in the OR/MS field; the President's Award, which recognizes important service to society; and, as discussed below, many other awards. The activities recognized by the 11 INFORMS awards range from deep mathematical advances to voluntary public service, thereby representing the wide diversity of contributions which INFORMS members make.
In order to understand the contribution made by the awards, it is helpful to remember INFORMS' motivation for giving them. Unlike some other professional societies, INFORMS does not offer just one major award. This is because the contributions of the OR/MS field are simply too broad to permit the comparisons that would be necessary. Therefore, INFORMS offers a variety of awards. In general, the awards provide several contributions towards the mission of INFORMS. First, they promote very positive public awareness of the achievements of its members. Second, they identify outstanding role models among the members and highlight their more significant accomplishments. Third, they encourage outstanding future activities by the members. Fourth, they enable INFORMS to maintain a tradition of pride in the accomplishments of its members since the founding of its predecessor societies, ORSA and TIMS, about 50 years ago.
Questions often arise about how the awards are administered and recipients are selected. For all of the awards, eligibility requirements and evaluation criteria are set by the award committee, with guidance from established Policies and Procedures (available at www.informs.org/General/PolicyManual/
Section-06-Awards.pdf), and when necessary also from INFORMS' Professional Recognition Committee. Announcements soliciting entries and nominations for the awards appear in various INFORMS publications, including OR/MS Today and E-News.
The Edelman Award is unique in that it is administered by the College for the Practice of Management Science (CPMS), which is the practice section of INFORMS. The award committee chair is appointed by the executive council of CPMS. Approximately 15 semi-finalists are selected by a screening and finalist committee with more than 40 members, based on a short summary document and any other written work submitted by October preceding the award year. A detailed verification process is performed for all semi-finalist entries by December, following which six finalists are selected. At that time, a panel of about 10 judges for the final stage is also formed. Each finalist submits a more extensive package of materials by March, and gives an oral presentation of their work in a special session at the INFORMS Practice Meeting. The winner is then announced at the meeting. (For more on this year's Edelman competition, see page 28.)
Each of the 10 other awards is administered by the INFORMS Board through a separate award committee. The chair of this committee is nominated by the vice president for Membership and Professional Recognition before the INFORMS General Meeting each fall, usually from among the previous year's committee members. After the INFORMS Board approves the nomination, the newly appointed committee chair forms the committee, which typically consists of between three and nine members, using guidelines in the Policies and Procedures. Committees are formed in January and February of the award year. Deadlines for submission of nominations and applications are typically in late summer. From then until one month before the General Meeting, the award committee judges the various entries. In some cases with large numbers of entries, several rounds of judging are required. Winners are usually notified several weeks before the General Meeting at which the award will be presented. The awards ceremony at the meeting is a showcase for some of the finest OR/MS contributions which INFORMS members make.
The 11 awards that INFORMS provides are described below. For each of the awards, the date when it was first awarded and the name of the 2003 award committee chair are given, followed by a brief description and an example of award-winning work from the most recent award cycle. Additional information can be found at www.informs.org/Prizes/#INFORMSPrizes.
Research Awards
Motivated by its strong academic tradition and intellectual foundations, INFORMS provides four awards for research.
1. Frederick W. Lanchester Prize
(first awarded in 1954; current committee chair: Rakesh Vohra)
The prize is named in honor of Frederick W. Lanchester, a British aeronautical engineer who built the first automobile in Britain and a pioneer of military operations research. In 1914, he formulated sets of differential equations which model a military combat engagement. The prize recognizes the best contribution to the OR/MS field published in English. Eligible work consists of a book, paper or collection of papers appearing in the open literature over the previous three years. For a collection of works published over more than one year, the individual components should be part of the same project. The extent of contribution is judged by how far the work advances the field, its originality, new application areas opened up, and the quality of exposition. The winner receives a cash prize and a medal.
The prize was most recently awarded in 2001 to J. Michael Harrison for a series of papers on performance analysis and control of Brownian networks. This work, which includes some of the strongest results known to date about Brownian networks, has had a substantial impact on the field of applied probability.
2. John von Neumann Theory Prize
(1975: David Yao)
The prize is named in honor of John von Neumann, who is considered by many to be the most outstanding mathematician of the 20th century. He made substantial contributions to OR/MS in areas including the theory of games, Monte Carlo simulation, numerical analysis, and the design and application of digital computers. He was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University. The von Neumann Prize is the premier "lifetime achievement" award for OR/MS research. It is awarded to a leading scholar who has made fundamental, sustained contributions to theory. Although the award is usually given to a single individual, it can be given to multiple collaborators for their joint work. The winner receives a cash prize, a medal and a certificate.
In 2002, the prize was awarded jointly to Cyrus Derman and Donald Iglehart. In a series of important papers which culminated in an influential textbook, Derman fundamentally advanced the understanding of finite-state-and-action Markov decision processes. Iglehart pioneered and, in subsequent papers with his student (2001 winner) Ward Whitt, led the development of diffusion limits and approximations for heavily congested stochastic systems.
3. Philip M. Morse Lectureship
(1988: Richard Larson)
The lectureship is named in honor of Philip M. Morse, who was director of the U.S. Navy Antisubmarine Warfare Operations Research Group (ASWORG), the first civilian organization engaged in military operations research in the United States (1942). With George E. Kimball, Morse wrote "Methods of Operations Research" (1952), the book which introduced OR/MS techniques to U.S. industry. He was a professor of physics at MIT, and a founding member and first president (1952) of ORSA. The lectureship is awarded for a period of two years to a distinguished member of the OR/MS profession, for the purpose of encouraging public lectures that benefit the profession and INFORMS. The award committee seeks to identify a winner who exemplifies the true spirit of Morse and who is an outstanding spokesperson for the OR/MS profession. The winner receives a cash prize, a certificate, a travel fund to support lectures on OR/MS topics, and copies of two influential books by Philip M. Morse.
For 2002-03, the lectureship is held by Gary L. Lilien, recognizing his important contributions, including several books and numerous articles, on the application of OR/MS methodology to marketing problems.
4. Expository Writing Award
(1996: Robert Vanderbei)
The award honors a member of the OR/MS profession whose publications demonstrate a consistently high standard of expository writing. Nominations should include references to examples of the nominee's high quality expository writing. The nominee's written work, published over a period of at least 10 years, should be broadly accessible and characterized by expository excellence. For an individual nominee, the publications must have been singly authored to an extent great enough to identify his or her expository skill. Alternatively, a team of authors working together consistently over many years may be nominated. Criteria for assessing excellence include lucidity, conciseness, and the logic of the writing at all levels from the general organization down to the details. The winner receives a cash prize and a certificate.
In 2002, the award was presented jointly to Ralph Keeney and Howard Raiffa. They were recognized for expository writing that is impressively clear and well-organized, with a style that is inviting and well-suited for communicating the concepts of decision science to a broad audience.
Practice Awards
Recognizing the strong link between theory and practice which is central to successful OR/MS, INFORMS provides three awards for practice.
1. Franz Edelman Award
(1972: Thomas Spencer)
The award is named in honor of Franz Edelman, vice president for Business Systems and Analysis at RCA, who established the Operations Research Group there as one of the earliest industrial OR/MS groups in North America. A pioneer of innovation and application of management science, Edelman also served as vice president for Finance of TIMS. The award recognizes outstanding examples of OR/MS practice anywhere in the world. Entrants are expected to report on a completed, practical application. The results of that application must have had a significant, verifiable and preferably quantifiable impact on the performance of the client organization. The prize is given for implemented work, not for a submitted paper or for a presentation describing the work. The winning client organization receives a certificate, and the authors of the entry receive a cash prize.
In 2002, the award was presented to Continental Airlines. With the assistance of a modeling team from CALEB Technologies, Continental developed robust optimal and near-optimal methodologies for rescheduling their operations after a disruption. As a result, Continental was able to recover from recent major disruptions in record time, while saving tens of millions of dollars.
2. INFORMS Prize
(1991: James Bradley)
The prize recognizes effective integration of OR/MS ideas into organizational decision-making. The principles of OR/MS should be applied in novel, varied and lasting ways in an organization. The evaluation of applications is based on the relative contribution which OR/MS makes to the overall success of the organization. The awards committee makes site visits to organizations that are selected as finalists, to assess the quality, breadth, impact and visibility of OR/MS activities. A trophy is awarded to a senior executive of the winning organization; outside consultants or contractors are not eligible.
In 2002, the prize was awarded to Hewlett-Packard for its use of OR/MS methodology across its value chain. The extensive application of modeling and analytical methods has saved Hewlett-Packard and its supply chain partners hundreds of millions of dollars, while also increasing their long-run competitive advantage. Hewlett-Packard also shares its modeling success stories through widely disseminated articles and case studies.
3. INFORMS Prize for the Teaching of OR/MS Practice
(1998: Stephen Powell)
The prize is given to a university or college teacher for excellence in the teaching of OR/MS practice. More specifically, the prize recognizes a teacher who has succeeded in helping his or her students to acquire the skills necessary to become effective practitioners of OR/MS. For this purpose, an effective practitioner is defined as a person who has respect for, understanding of, and the skills to surmount both the practical difficulties and the technical challenges of doing, good OR/MS work. These skills include problem comprehension, modeling, mastery of theory, balanced judgment and ability for implementation. The winner receives a cash prize and a certificate.
In 2002, the prize was awarded to David M. Ryan. As head of the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Auckland, Ryan has inspired a generation of successful OR/MS practitioners, including five who have won the Young Practitioner Prize of the New Zealand O.R. Society.
Service Awards
Among the most visible activities undertaken by INFORMS are those directed toward service. The two service awards distinguish between internal and external service activities.
1. George E. Kimball Medal
(1974: Robert Abrams)
The medal is named in honor of George E. Kimball, who was a member of the U.S. Navy Antisubmarine Warfare Operations Research Group (ASWORG). With Philip M. Morse, he wrote "Methods of Operations Research" (1952). Kimball was a professor of chemistry at Columbia University, and a founding member and president (1964) of ORSA. The medal recognizes distinguished service to INFORMS and to the OR/MS profession. This service usually occurs over many years. Besides the medal, the winner receives a certificate.
In 2002, the medal was awarded jointly to Craig W. Kirkwood, Richard C. Larson and Gary L. Lilien. Kirkwood was recognized for service as treasurer of INFORMS (1999-2000) and numerous committee leadership roles, including chairing the Combined ORSA/TIMS Publications Committee and the INFORMS Finance Committee. Larson served as ORSA president (1993), chaired the 1985 national meeting in Boston and many committees including the Lanchester Prize Committee and the Public Information Committee, and has demonstrated the potential of operations research to a wide external audience. Lilien co-edited the first collection of Edelman award papers, and served as editor in chief of Interfaces (1982-88) where he greatly increased its academic stature, and as TIMS president (1993-94) when the merger into INFORMS was approved.
2. President's Award
(1993: Tom Cook)
The award recognizes important contributions to the welfare of society at the global, national or local level by members of the OR/MS profession. Achievements suitable for this recognition may be in technical or scientific education, or in paid or voluntary consulting or management (commercial, academic, governmental or nonprofit). The accomplishments recognized need not be the result of either formal or informal OR/MS studies, and need not be documented in the OR/MS literature, provided they involve the support and promotion of OR/MS activities. One objective of the award is to recognize achievements that are not eligible for the various other awards given by INFORMS. The winner receives a certificate.
In 2002, Edward H. Kaplan received the award for his 15-year, highly successful investigation into methods for evaluating policies to manage the AIDS epidemic. His work in this area is wide-ranging, addressing issues of protecting the blood supply, HIV incidence estimation, resource allocation and other aspects of AIDS policy. In particular, Kaplan demonstrated the efficacy of a needle exchange program in New Haven, Conn., in preventing the spread of HIV, a result that confounded widely held beliefs within the public health community.
Student Awards
The future of INFORMS is being built on the energy and talent of its student members. To recognize their early accomplishments and future potential, INFORMS provides two student awards.
1. George E. Nicholson, Jr., Prize
(1975: David Morton)
The prize is named in honor of George E. Nicholson, Jr., who was an operations analyst with the XXI Bomber Command in the Pacific during World War II. He was a founding member, and a member of the first Education Committee, of ORSA. He also served as chairman of the Department of Statistics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (1952-1971). The prize recognizes outstanding work in the OR/MS field written by a student. Entrants must have been students on or after Jan. 1 of the year in which the award is made. The work must present original research results in a paper of no more than 25, double-spaced pages. While one or more advisors may appear as coauthors, the student must be the main author. Cash prizes are given to first and second place winners and to all entrants receiving an honorable mention. First and second place winners also receive a certificate.
In 2002, the prize was awarded to Savas Dayanik, for describing a new methodology, using concave functions and their extensions, for solving optimal stopping problems in one-dimensional diffusion processes, with applications to pricing American options.
2. George B. Dantzig Dissertation Prize
(1994: Robert Smith)
The prize is named in honor of George B. Dantzig, who is regarded as the "father" of linear programming. In 1947, while working as a mathematician for the U.S. Air Force, Dantzig stated the general form of the linear programming problem and invented the simplex method for solving it. Dantzig was a professor of operations research at the University of California (Berkeley) and later at Stanford University, and a founding member and president (1966) of TIMS. The prize recognizes the best dissertation that is innovative and relevant to the practice of OR/MS. Each entry consists of a paper which summarizes the results in the dissertation which was written, primarily by the entrant, not more than 15 months before the submission deadline. The practical relevance of the work and its potential impact on industry need to be clearly explained, and documented in a support letter from an industry associate. All finalists receive a cash prize, and the winner also receives a certificate.
In 2002, the prize was awarded to Daniela Pucci de Farias, for developments in the use of linear programming formulations for approximating the solution of dynamic programming problems, and analysis of bounds that characterize the quality of such approximations, with applications to multiclass queueing problems and web server farm management.
Subdivision Awards
Besides the awards discussed above which are given by INFORMS, most subdivisions (i.e., societies, sections, chapters, student chapters and fora) within INFORMS also offer a variety of forms of professional recognition. More details can be found at www.informs.org/Subdiv.
How You Can Help
INFORMS members can help to enhance the awards program, and at the same time enrich the OR/MS profession, in several ways: first, by submitting their best work for review by an award committee; second, by volunteering to serve on the various awards committees; and finally, if aware of examples of great OR/MS, by letting the relevant award committee know about them.
|
Nicholas G. Hall is professor of Management Sciences, and of Industrial & Systems Engineering, at The Ohio State University. A past president of MSOM Society, he is serving as vice president for Membership and Professional Recognition of INFORMS for 2003. He also serves on the Finance Committee of INFORMS and the editorial boards of Operations Research, Management Science and M&SOM. Questions about the INFORMS awards may be sent to him at hall.33@osu.edu.
OR/MS Today copyright © 2003 by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences.
All rights reserved.
Lionheart Publishing, Inc.
506 Roswell Road, Suite 220, Marietta, GA USA
Phone: 770-431-0867 | Fax: 770-432-6969
E-mail: lpi@lionhrtpub.com
Web URL: www.lionhrtpub.com
Web Site © Copyright 2003 by Lionheart Publishing, Inc.
All rights reserved.