February 2000 The 15th Triennial IFORS Conference in Beijing By Graham Rand The 15th Triennial Conference of the International Federation of Operational Research Societies was held in Beijing from Aug.16-20, 1999. The first conference was held in 1957, two years before IFORS was formed. Thus, in 1999, IFORS celebrated its 40-year anniversary at its 15th triennial conference, a neat mathematical trick for a quantitative discipline. The conference was well attended, thanks in large part to the efforts of Organizing Committee Chairman Xiang-Sun Zhang and Conference Secretariat Kan Cheng, both professors at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The 1,000 participants hailed from more than 50 countries, including 200 from China (31 from Hong Kong). The conference, held at the Friendship Hotel, was considered a great success in terms of the program, the setting and the social events. Conference Highlights Paolo Toth, set to become president of IFORS in 2001, and his Program Committee put together an outstanding scientific program that featured 27 parallel tracks. During the opening ceremony, Hsu Guan Hua, China's deputy minister of Science and Technology, expressed the determination of his country to continue a policy of open reform and modernization of science and technology. David Ryan of New Zealand gave the opening plenary on the theme "Real OR," drawing on his extensive experience working with various organizations, notably Air New Zealand. Later in the week, Egon Balas gave a second plenary on combinatorial optimization. IFORS conferences emphasize the use of OR in developing countries, and Beijing was no exception. The conference featured a stream of papers devoted to the subject, including eight papers entered for the IFORS Prize for OR in Development (selected from 47 entries). The Daiwa House Industry Co., Ltd., in co-operation with the Operations Research Society of Japan, sponsored the prize competition. The competition was organized by jury chairman Gautum Dutta. Details of the results were published in the October 1999 issue of OR/MS Today. Much of the discussion at the conference focused on the role IFORS can play in encouraging the application of OR in developing countries. The IFORS' Developing Countries Committee made a number of decisions (see box) that should aid in the worldwide promotion of OR. Elise del Rosario, chairperson of the Developing Countries Committee, will become an IFORS vice president at large in 2001, ensuring that this important area continues to be at the forefront of IFORS' agenda. Many of the papers presented at the conference will be published in International Transactions in Operational Research during 2000, under the guest editorship of Theo Stewart from South Africa. Social Program The social program was equally as memorable as the scientific program, perhaps more so for many in attendance. Virtually all of the participants and 300 of their guests packed the 21st Century Theater for a specially organized evening of Chinese opera, dancing and acrobatics. The participants also traveled to the Great Wall for a day of sightseeing. At the closing banquet — a typical 10-course Chinese feast held in the Friendship Hotel — Professor Cheng Siwei, vice chairman of the National People's Congress and one of the senior officials in the Chinese government, spoke on developments on OR and management. On the last day of the conference, IFORS Vice President Graham Rand organized a special session to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of IFORS. The session featured a multimedia presentation of tapes, overhead slides and interviews highlighting special moments from the past four decades. Nearly every member society sent a representative to the platform in an impressive demonstration of the worldwide nature of the federation. The Beijing Conference was a significant event in the history of IFORS. Along with demonstrating that OR has a bright future throughout the world, the conference represented a high point in the term of the current IFORS Administrative Committee, chaired by President Andres Weintraub of Chile. The next conference is scheduled for Edinburgh, Scotland in 2002. Ben Lev is creating the conference program. Details can be found at www.som.umd.umich.edu/ifors2002/ Developing an Action Plan The Developing Countries Committee took the following actions: Encouraged the establishment of an OR society for Bangladesh. Named South Africa as the site of the next ICORD (International Conference on OR for Development) in 2001. Created a Reader in Operational Research, the objective of which is to provide readings relevant to the study of operational research in the context of developing countries. Planned a special issue on DCs in International Transactions in Operational Research to include the finalists of the DC Paper Competition. Agreed to play an active role in the Educational Materials Committee headed by Vicki Sauter. Agreed to continue publication of the DC Newsletter Graham Rand is an IFORS vice president based in the United Kingdom. Table of Contents OR/MS Today Home Page OR/MS Today copyright © 2000 by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences. All rights reserved. Lionheart Publishing, Inc. 506 Roswell Street, Suite 220, Marietta, GA 30060, USA Phone: 770-431-0867 | Fax: 770-432-6969 E-mail: lpi@lionhrtpub.com URL: http://www.lionhrtpub.com Web Site © Copyright 1999, 2000 by Lionheart Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.