December 1997
Fishman Book Earns Lanchester Accolades
George S. Fishman received the 1997 Frederick W. Lanchester Prize at the INFORMS Fall Meeting in Dallas. The Lanchester Prize recognizes the best English language publication in operations research.
Lanchester Prize Committee Chair Chuck McCallum made the presentation. Noting the number of outstanding nominations, McCallum said the committee faced a very difficult task in choosing one, but that the quality of Fishman's work ultimately made the committee's choice clear.
Paul Glasserman, Edward Kaplan, Steven Lippman, Stephen Robinson and Amir Sadrian completed the committee.
Fishman, a professor of operations research at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, was honored for his book, "Monte Carlo: Concepts, Algorithms and Applications," published by Springer-Verlag in 1996.
The award citation noted that "Monte Carlo simulation is one of the cornerstones of operations research and among its most widely used techniques. It is both a practitioner's tool — applied to such areas as manufacturing, reliability, telecommunications and transportation — and a theoretician's aid, commonly used to evaluate the performance of approximations and heuristics."
Fishman's book was cited for developing "Monte Carlo simulation as a numerical method, providing detailed algorithms and subjecting them to a rigorous analysis of computational and statistical efficiency. A theme of the book is the proper estimation and control of error, an issue of both practical and theoretical significance. Drawing on a distinguished career in the field, the author brings a distinct perspective to the topic and covers a breadth of material not readily available elsewhere. The book's scope and depth will make it an important reference for many years."
In accepting the award, Fishman acknowledged his colleagues and said "writing the book was a labor of pleasure that gave me considerable satisfaction."
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