Martin Putterman of the University of British Columbia received honorable mention.
The awards, which annually recognize the best English language publication in operations research, were presented by Lanchester Prize Committee chairman Matt Sobel during the Institute's recent meeting in New Orleans. Sobel, dean of the W.A. Harriman School for Management and Policy at SUNY Stony Brook, was joined on the committee by Christos Alexopoulos, Frieda Granot, J. Michael Harrison, John Klincewicz and Robin Roundy.
"The committee was extremely fortunate to have numerous outstanding works nominated," said Sobel, adding that the committee reviewed each nomination carefully and considered its impact, originality and quality of exposition.
"The prize-winning works each are representative of how far the society and our field has evolved," Sobel continued. "Each of them is an exciting and enduring contribution."
Kaplan's citation read in part:
"Acquired Immune Deficiency and its associated diseases, a global scourge of our time, has ethical, political and economic overtones as well as research and public policy issues such as reducing the spread of AIDS and ameliorating its impact. The spread of AIDS is now reduced by programs in which illegal drug users anonymously exchange used needles for clean ones. Clever operations research and molecular biology has cut through the political controversy that first attended these programs and provided a scientific confirmation that needle exchange programs save lives.
"Edward H. Kaplan's papers played an important role in the life-saving substitution of science for political rhetoric. By introducing operational models of the spread of these diseases, the papers significantly changed the ways in which AIDS public health experts thought about HIV prevention programs. The stigma of AIDS interferes with the collection of data; the papers introduce powerful statistical methods to analyze sparse data on the effectiveness of prevention programs.
"The papers make exciting reading, they have been the basis from which many researchers began their work, and they have guided critical social decisions throughout the United States and are having an increasing impact in other countries. They fuse research with applications in written work which achieves the highest standard of accomplishment in operations research."
Kaplan, who has long been dedicated to the application of operations research methods to the analysis of public policy problems, is perhaps best known for designing and conducting an evaluation of New Haven's (Conn.) Legal Needle Exchange Program. His work in this area on behalf of the New Haven Health Department won the 1992 Franz Edelman Award for Management Science Achievement from TIMS, which merged with ORSA to become INFORMS.
Co-recipients Cottle, Pang and Stone's citation read in part:
"The linear complementarity problem has played an important unifying role in operations research since its introduction more than three decades ago. In fact, the notion of complementarity lies at the heart of all constrained optimization problems in finite dimensions. Applications of complementarity problems are prevalent, especially in economics and engineering. Over the years, research on linear complementarity has provided new methodology, enhanced our understanding of extant algorithms, and permitted novel applications of operations research.
"The authors have been among the leaders in this work. Their book is a unique and comprehensive treatment of all major aspects of the linear complementarity problem. The topics covered are both classical and contemporary, there are abundant original ideas, and the exposition is superb. Since its publication, the book has become a standard reference and has stimulated further research and applications. We fully expect it to remain in the forefront of complementarity research and applications for many years to come."