June 1998
INFORMS News:
Subdivision Awards
Applied Probability Section
The Erlang Prize, presented by the Applied Probability Section of INFORMS, was awarded to Xiuli Chao for his wide range of contributions to applied probability and to Jim Dai for his significant research in applied probability.
Most significant is an extensive study by Chao and his collaborators of the class of Markovian networks which exhibit procut-form stationary distributions. This class of networks encompasses Jackson and Kelly networks, networks and negative customers, and signaling networks.
In other investigations, Chao used stochastic convexity to establish an important monotonicity property for doubly stochastic Poisson processes and has studied interchangeability and reversibility properties of tandem queues with finite buffers and blocking.
In addition to an outstanding record of research and publications, Chao has served on the editorial boards of many leading journals and has co-authored several books on queuing networks and operations scheduling.
As part of his dissertation research, Jim Dai developed efficient numerical methods for steady-state analysis of multi-dimensional reflected Brownian motions, which arise as heavy traffic approximations of queuing networks.
Additionally, he established a close mathematical relationship between fluid network stability and queuing network stability. This connection has since become a standard tool in studying multi-class stability problems.
Dai's recent work has focused on characterizing the global stability region for multi-class networks, and on the formulation of easily implemented scheduling rules that promote stability.
Computer Science Technical Section
The Computer Science Technical Section of INFORMS awarded the 1998 Prize for Research Excellence in the Interface between Operations Research and Computer Science to Ding-Zhu Du and Frank K. Hwang for their article, "A Proof of the Gilbert-Pollak Conjecture on the Steiner Ratio."
This article settled a classic conjecture in geometric optimization, some 25 years old, which had resisted the efforts of a generation of researchers in the field. The key to their approach is a new technique which they introduced and which promises to bring an entire range of old problems into the range of feasibility.
This work also initiated the further development of Steiner trees in the 1990s and the solution of several open problems under the influence of this work. The Steiner tree is an optimization problem with applications in telecommunications, computer networks and VLSI design.
Manufacturing and Service Operations Management Section
The 1998 INFORMS Section on Manufacturing and Service Operations Management Distinguished Service Award was presented to John A. Buzacott for meritorious service toward the founding and development of the MSOM Section of INFORMS.
A former president of MSOM, Buzacott provided the inspiration for the first conference and was largely responsible for getting ORSA/TIMS/INFORMS to launch its new journal.
He was also praised for his other contributions and was acknowledged as an "exemplary role model" for the Section.
Aviation Application Section
The Aviation Application Section of INFORMS held its first student paper competition at this year's meeting in Montreal.
First place, which included a $500 prize and certificate, went to Sarah Stock-Patterson for "The Traffic Flow Management Problem with Enroute Capacities."
Second place , which included a $250 prize and certificate, went to Jennifer Goodhart for "Issues in Airspace Resource Allocation: The User-Optimized Traffic Flow Management Problem."
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