For more information contact:
Barbara Christopher, Industrial and Systems Engineering
Contact Barbara Christopher bchristopher@isye.gatech.edu
404.385.3102
O.R. Symposium Recognizes George Nemhauser
Atlanta (August 3, 2007) — Dr. George L. Nemhauser, one of the world's foremost experts on discrete optimization, was honored at the Optimization Research Symposium: Recognizing Professor George Nemhauser's Contributions to the Field of Operations Research at the Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center on July 26-27. The two-day event included tributes to Nemhauser as his fellow researchers roasted and toasted him as well as presentations highlighting the depth and breath of the contributions he has made to the field of operations research.
- (L to R) George Nemhauer and Michael Ball
Dr. Michael Ball, Orkand Corporation Professor of Management Science in the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, served as moderator of the symposium.
"I felt the symposium was a resounding success," Ball commented. "We had participants come from literally around the world, including Asia, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. The enthusiasm of the speakers and participants clearly demonstrated the respect the scientific community has for George's professional accomplishments and for him as a person."
Colleagues discussed Nemhauser's work in the areas of integer programming, combinatorial optimization, airline optimization, and sports scheduling, focusing on the tremendous impact his work has made and continues to make in this field.
- More than 90 participants from around the world attended the symposium.
Guest speakers included:
Cindy Barnhart, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
Bob Bixby, Rice University, Houston, TX
Gerard Cornuejols, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Bill Cunningham, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada
Marshall Fisher, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Dave Goldsman, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA
Ralph Gomory, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, New York, NY
Martin Groetschel, Konrad-Zuse-Zentrum, Berlin, Germany
John Jarvis, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA
Tom Magnanti, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
Bill Pulleyblank, IBM, Somers, NY
Don Ratliff, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA
David Ryan, Auckland University, Auckland, New Zealand
Michael Trick, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
Mike Thomas, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA
Chelsea C. White III, Stewart School of ISyE, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA
Laurence Wolsey, CORE, Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium
- Tom Magnanti, Dean of MIT's School of Engineering, discusses minimizing with concave costs.
Event organizers were Michael Ball, University of Maryland, and Martin Savelsbergh, Georgia Tech. Sponsors included the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Tech; the Supply Chain and Logistics Institute at Georgia Tech, and the Center for Electronic Markets and Enterprises (CEME), Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland.
More about George Nemhauser:
Dr. Nemhauser is the A. Russell Chandler III Chaired Professor in the Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech. He received his Ph.D. in operations research from Northwestern University in 1961, and joined the faculty of Johns Hopkins University where he remained until 1969. In 1970, he joined Cornell University as a professor in operations research and industrial engineering and served as school director from 1977 to 1983. He has held visiting faculty positions at the University of Leeds, U.K., and the University of Louvain, Belgium. Dr. Nemhauser was co-director of the Logistics Engineering Center at Georgia Tech. He has served the Operations Research Society of America (ORSA) as a council member, president, and editor of Operations Research, and he is past chair of the Mathematical Programming Society. He is founding editor of Operations Research Letters, and co-editor of Handbooks of Operations Research and Management Science.
Dr. Nemhauser has served various governmental agencies, including the national Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institute of Standards and technology (NIST), and the National Research Council (NRC). He is a member of the NRC's Board of mathematical Sciences. His honors and awards include membership in the National Academy of Engineering, the Kimball Medal, the Lanchester Prize (twice awarded), and the Morse Lecturer of ORSA. His logistics research focus is in discrete optimization. He is actively working on several applications, especially crew and fleet scheduling problems in the airline industry.
Some of his honors and awards include:
Fellow, INFORMS, 2002
Selected as Engineering Alumnus of 1999, Northwestern University, 1999
Morse Lectureship, INFORMS, 1991
Lanchester Prize, INFORMS, 1990
George E. Kimball Medal, INFORMS, 1988
National Academy of Engineering, 1986
Awarded Academic Chair at Cornell University (Leon C. Welch Professor), 1985
Awarded Academic Chair at Georgia Tech (A. Russell Chandler III Professor), 1985
Selected in the Top 10% of Instructors in Cornell's College of Engineering, 1980-81
Lanchester Prize, INFORMS, 1977
NSF Senior Faculty Fellowship, 1969
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