2025 Winner(s)
Purpose of the Award
2025 & 2026 Committee Chair
Irv Lustig, CAP
Optimization Principal, Princeton Consultants
The Franz Edelman competition attests to the contributions of operations research and analytics in both the profit and non-profit sectors. Since its inception, cumulative benefits from Edelman finalist projects has topped the $419 billion mark. Edelman finalist teams have improved organizational efficiency, increased profits, brought better products to consumers, helped foster peace negotiations, and saved lives. The purpose of the Franz Edelman competition is to bring forward, recognize and reward outstanding examples of operations research, management science, and advanced analytics in practice in the world, with $15,000 in awards. First prize is accompanied by a $10,000 honorarium.
See more detailed information on the award.
View the Edelman Gala book to read summaries of the 2024 finalists.
Videos of past competitions, suitable for teaching, marketing, or publicizing OR/MS practice successes, are available in the INFORMS Video Library. View the Franz Edelman Laureates (people) and the Franz Edelman Academy (companies).
Application Process
Apply for the leading O.R. and analytics award in the industry.
Applications for 2025 are due October 1, 2024 (noon eastern).
About the Award/Namesake
Franz Edelman is counted among the fathers of innovation in OR/MS. Coming of age in Hitler's Germany, Edelman dedicated his career to facilitating better decisions on matters great and small through operations research. Today, his discoveries, along with other OR/MS pioneers, inspire initiatives to help leaders get better results in every sector of management and operations.
This top INFORMS practice prize was named after Franz Edelman shortly after his death in 1982. He established one of the earliest industrial OR/MS groups in North America at RCA, where he worked for over 30 years as O.R. director.
Franz Edelman died suddenly on January 15, 1982. He learned about the capriciousness of life from his early experiences, fleeing to England from his native Germany at the age of 16, only to be interned as an alien and sent to Canada for an interlude of lumberjacking. He received his undergraduate education at McGill University, and he obtained a Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Brown University...
Learn more about Franz Edelman
This award is administered by the Practice Section of INFORMS. To learn more about the section and how to become a member, visit their website here.