Past Awards
The 2013 INFORMS President’s Award is presented to Arthur Geoffrion for his seminal contributions in the field of operations research and management sciences , his leadership in connecting theory to practice, and his influential mentoring and teaching of OR/MS professionals. These professionals continue to use his ideas and applications to impact business, government, and greater society.
Over the course of nearly five decades of research, teaching, and service, Arthur Geoffrion has repeatedly demonstrated that elegant, sophisticated techniques contribute the most when they serve to enable decision makers in the workplace. He is well recognized for his impactful research and writing on optimization theory and its applications, authoring more than 60 scholarly papers, chapters in more than a half-dozen books, and many opinion pieces. Over the course of his long career, he has consistently and eloquently argued for bridging the gap between academia and practice and for “the shared destiny of academia and practice.” He trained generations of students to bring a scientific toolbox to their organizations in a variety of industries. Leading by example, Arthur co-founded a consulting firm that has provided operations research solutions to organizations for over 35 years. An early grasp of the rising importance of the Internet motivated him to urge OR/MS researchers to come forward to contribute to all forms of electronic commerce.
Arthur Geoffrion also put his words into practice through highly effective leadership in his professional societies. He served as president of both INFORMS and TIMS, INFORMS’ predecessor society. One of his most lasting accomplishments was to establish the TIMS Roundtable, which later became the INFORMS Roundtable. This provides a platform for OR/MS leaders at major companies and organizations to exchange ideas to improve their businesses, and to provide input and guidance to TIMS and INFORMS on how to serve industry most effectively.
Not surprisingly, Arthur Geoffrion has already received much recognition for his accomplishments. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and received an honorary doctorate from RWTH Aachen University. He is an INFORMS Fellow, and received both the TIMS Distinguished Service Medal and the George E. Kimball Medal. He has also been honored by Omega Rho and is a fellow of the International Academy of Management. His work in the area of distribution planning was awarded a NATO Systems Science Prize.
The INFORMS President's Award is made for contributions to the welfare of society. Arthur Geoffrion has contributed to solving problems of business and government both directly through his own work and indirectly through his influence on numerous colleagues, students, and industry professionals. I am therefore delighted to present the 2013 INFORMS President's Award to Arthur Geoffrion, James A. Collins Chair in Management Emeritus, UCLA Anderson School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles.
Arthur M. Geoffrion has earned high distinction in the world of operations research and the management sciences. He made important contributions to our knowledge. He became a leader and a role model. And he served our profession well as President of INFORMS during a formative period, when he set a lofty standard by inspiring other INFORMS activists to pursue productive new directions and by giving his caring time and attention in abundance.
After receiving BME and MIE degrees at Cornell, Art earned was awarded the PhD in operations research from Stanford in 1965. He then joined UCLA’s Anderson Graduate School of Management, where he chaired the management science program and ultimately became James A. Collins Professor of Management. His research resulted in more than 60 published works. Specializing initially in optimization and its applications, he later developed the structured modeling formalism to improve model building. He took an early lead in anticipating the rise of the Internet and e-commerce, e-commerce, and in charting the associated role of OR/MS. For his many achievements, he was awarded a NATO System Science Prize, named a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and designated a Fellow of the International Academy of Management, and named a member of the National Academy of Engineering. Over the years he has been a consultant to government and business. He co-founded the management-consulting firm, INSIGHT, Inc.
Early in his career, Art served on several ORSA and TIMS committees, and assumed a departmental editorship for our journal Management Science. He was elected President of TIMS, serving in 1982. In 1983 he founded the TIMS Management Science Roundtable of organizational members, now the INFORMS Roundtable, where he continues as its webmaster and member of their Executive Committee. In 1992 he became the fourth person in history to receive the TIMS Distinguished Service Medal. Subsequently, he was elected the third Elected President of INFORMS, serving in 1997. His comprehensive vision for the future of INFORMS and OR/MS, underscored by his themes "the shared destiny of academia and practice, the Webification of INFORMS, and improving the improved partnership between staff and volunteers put the whole team on the field," instilled enthusiasm and energy in board members and other active volunteers and helped the Institute move from its it’s focus on blending the ORSA and TIMS heritages to a focus on discovering and implementing better ways to advance the profession.
For Arthur Geoffrion's his most distinguished service to the profession and to the Society, the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences expresses its profound appreciation by awarding him the George E. Kimball Medal.