Dr. Dantzig was born on Nov. 8, 1914, in Portland, Ore., to Tobias and Anja Dantzig. He was a mathematically precocious youngster who did well in high school mathematics and science. He received an A.B. in mathematics and physics from the University of Maryland, College Park (1936); an M.A. in mathematics from the University of Michigan (1938); and a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley (1946).

Dr. Dantzig's first job was as a junior statistician for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (1937-1939). In 1939, he entered the Ph.D. program in mathematics at Berkeley and was a teaching assistant to Jerzy Neyman. Although he completed his Ph.D. courses and dissertation in 1941, work and the exigencies of World War II delayed his receiving the Ph.D. until the spring of 1946.

During the war, Dr. Dantzig was chief of the Combat Analysis Branch of Statistical Control, U.S. Army Air Force, Pentagon, Washington, D.C. Afterwards, he stayed on at the Pentagon as mathematical advisor to the comptroller of the newly formed Department of the U.S. Air Force. It was here that Dr. Dantzig, based on his study of Air Force deployment and logistical planning problems and its relationship to Leontief's inter-industry model, formulated the general linear programming problem and invented the simplex method for solving it.

Dr. Dantzig's seminal research for the Air Force was instrumental in establishing the mathematical, computational and applied power of linear programming: the efficacy of the simplex method, the linear programming duality relationships, solution of the Hitchcock-Koopmans transportation problem, and the equivalence between a two-person zero-sum game and a linear programming problem. The simplex method was designated as one of the 10 most important algorithms of the 20th century by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.

In 1952, Dr. Dantzig joined the RAND Corporation as a research mathematician. While at RAND, working alone or with a stellar cast of co-authors, Dr. Dantzig furthered linear programming as an important applied and mathematically sound approach for analyzing a wide range of real-world decision problems. His RAND research included development and analysis of the decomposition principle, discrete variable applications, knapsack problem, network and shortest route procedures, traveling salesman problem, revised simplex method, uncertainty and much more.

Saul Gass (right) was one of Dantzig's first Ph.D. students at the University of California-Berkeley.

In 1960, he began his illustrious academic career as professor of Engineering Science and Chairman of the Operations Research Center, University of California, Berkeley. He moved to Stanford University in 1966 as professor of Operations Research and Computer Science, and was appointed to the C. A. Criley Endowed Chair in Transportation in 1973. He retired in 1985 as professor emeritus.

During his academic career, Professor Dantzig showed how to exploit the linear programming model's generality: the formulation and solution of management problems in most major industries; the resolution of strategic and tactical problems in defense; the evaluation of plans and operational solutions of national and world-wide energy and other resource limited problems; theoretical advances in mathematics, statistics, economics, game theory and computer science; and the adaptation of the linear programming model to a more general set of mathematical programming problems. Much of Dr. Dantzig's important early work is captured in his classic text "Linear Programming and Extensions," Princeton University Press, 1963. Today's students and researchers will find much of value in it: an historical discussion of how the field first developed, the basic elements of linear programming, and the remarkable mathematical and applied extensions of the field. More recently, Dr. Dantzig co-authored a two-volume view of the current status of the field.

Dr. Dantzig was a fellow of INFORMS, the Econometric Society, the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, the Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. He was a founding member of The Institute for Management Sciences and served as its president in 1966.

Dr. Dantzig was the first recipient of the Operations Research Society of America's von Neumann Theory Prize and was the first inductee into the IFORS Operational Research Hall of Fame. He was awarded the Silver Medal of the British Operational Research Society and the Harvey Prize in Science and Technology from the Technion University. In 1975, President Ford presented him with the National Medal of Science.

Dr. Dantzig is survived by his wife of 68 years, Anne, and their children, David Dantzig of Cleveland, Paul Dantzig of Scarsdale, N.Y., and Jessica Klass of El Cerrito, Calif., as well as three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. In keeping with George Dantzig's love of teaching and his constant striving to bring out the best in his students, his family suggests that memorial donations should be given to the INFORMS George Dantzig Dissertation Award.

An expanded tribute to Dr. Dantzig, featuring comments from his former colleagues and students, will appear in a forthcoming issue of OR/MS Today.

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