Past Awards
Bruce L. Golden received his undergraduate degree in mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania and his masters and doctoral degrees from M.I.T. He joined the faculty of the University of Maryland Business School in 1976 and served as a Department Chairman from 1980 to 1996. Currently, he is the France-Merrick Chair in Management Science in the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. His research interests include transportation science & logistics, combinatorial optimization, and healthcare analytics.
In particular, Professor Golden has made numerous and substantial contributions to the field of vehicle routing. In recognition of this, he was recently selected as the second VeRoLog Fellow (and first non-European). The VeRoLog Fellow title is awarded by the board of the European Working Group on Vehicle Routing and Logistics Optimization to an individual who throughout his or her professional career has made fundamental and sustained contributions to vehicle routing and logistics optimization, and has influenced the field through his or her writings, teaching, service, and nurturing of younger professionals.
In parallel with his academic contributions to the field of vehicle routing, he founded a company with several colleagues in 1980 in order to implement the latest advances in vehicle routing and business logistics. By the late 1980s, this company (RouteSmart Technologies, Inc.) specialized in the design and licensing of vehicle routing software. The current version of this software continues to be used by many transportation and public utility companies today.
Professor Golden has contributed to INFORMS and our profession in many ways. He has served on and chaired INFORMS boards and committees, chaired sessions, clusters, workshops, and conferences, and he has provided exceptional service to major journals in OR/MS. He has been an INFORMS Fellow since 2004.
Bruce served as Area Editor of Operations Research from 1982 to 1988. He served as Departmental Editor of Management Science from 1992 to 2002. In 1992, the ORSA Journal on Computing was in financial trouble. Bruce was named its second Editor-in-Chief (EIC). He cut costs and quickly lined up a handful of institutional sponsors. He worked with a graphic designer to redesign the journal cover. The journal became profitable and Bruce was re-appointed as EIC of the INFORMS Journal on Computing in 1996. Bruce has been an active member of the INFORMS Journal on Computing Advisory Board ever since he stepped down as EIC in 2000. For his many contributions to the INFORMS Computing Society, Professor Golden received its 2011 Harvey J. Greenberg Award for lifetime contributions.
Ivan Frisch started the journal Networks in 1971 to publish articles on network modeling and network optimization. It was the first journal of its kind. Bruce served as a referee in the early 1970s, and he became an Associate Editor by the late 1970s. In 1999, Professor Golden and Douglas Shier were named Editors-in-Chief of Networks.
Networks publishes eight issues per year and Bruce continues to serve as an EIC. About 15 years ago, he introduced the Glover-Klingman Prize (in recognition of the pioneering contributions of Fred Glover and Darwin Klingman to network optimization) for best Networks paper of the year. This prize has been awarded from 2003 through 2018. In general, the journal continues to thrive. Bruce has now been an EIC of a major OR/MS journal for more than 26 years.
For his many contributions to the field of operations research and management science, INFORMS expresses its sincere appreciation to Bruce L. Golden by awarding him the 2018 George E. Kimball Medal.
For their papers:
- "A Genetic Algorithm-Based Approach for Building Accurate Decision Trees"
- "Genetically Engineered Decision Trees: Population Diversity Produces Smarter Trees"
- "Diversification for Better Classification Tree"
Professor Bruce L. Golden, who holds the France-Merrick Chair in Management Science at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, has been an accomplished teacher, scholar, and practitioner of MS/OR for 27 years. The hallmark of his teaching has been putting theory into practice. His many successful students now employed in industry attest to the strong impact his teaching has had on their careers, and the positive impact he has had on them personally.
Professor Golden’s success as a teacher begins with his effectiveness as a practitioner. From his many years of consulting he draws examples from diverse applications. He has always been willing to get his hands dirty with real data and the idiosyncratic challenges of MS/OR practice. He brings this perspective to all his teaching, whether it is an undergraduate course in O.R. or a graduate seminar in networks. In his teaching, the problem, with all its richness, always comes first. He is an exemplary teacher of the craft of modeling.
Professor Golden has kindled a sustained interest in MS/OR in many of his students, with a select group going on to careers in MS/OR practice. This group is now reaching positions of authority and influence in major organizations. Many cite Professor Golden’s enthusiasm for teaching and dedication to learning, along with his ability to communicate both the theoretical and the practical aspects of the MS/OR approach, as keys to their career success. As one student put it, “To say that my graduate education with Professor Golden had an enormous effect on my professional career and subsequent research efforts would be a gross understatement. While his classroom teaching provided the basics, working with him in a research setting imparted valuable skills that I continue to draw upon. Putting theory into practice is Professor Golden’s touchstone and it pervades much of what I do today.”
For his extraordinary dedication to his students’ learning of management science practice and the resulting impact they have had in industry, INFORMS is proud to award its prize for the Teaching of OR/MS Practice to Bruce L. Golden.