Upcoming Travel and Hosting Speakers

As the new semester is gearing up, it is exciting to be able to both travel to give talks as well as to host speakers. Next week, I will be flying to Dallas, Texas, to give a talk, "Synergies and Vulnerabilities of Supply Chain Networks in a Global Economy." I will be hosted by the Dallas/Forth Worth Chapter of INFORMS (The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences). My gracious host will be Dr. Patricia Neri, who works for Southwest Airlines. The talk will take place at Southern Methodist University.

The following week, we will begin our Spring 2009 Speaker Series in Operations Research / Management Science at the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst. Our first speaker, on Friday, February 20, 2009, will be Professor Ellis Johnson of Georgia Tech, who will be talking about Operations Research and Air Traffic Problems. We are delighted that Professor Johnson, who is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, will be inaugurating out Spring Series! UMass Amherst has issued a press release for the series. This will be the tenth semester of this Speaker Series which is organized by the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter. I serve as the chapter's Faculty Advisor and it is so rewarding to see the enthusiasm of the students in this endeavor. The series adds so much to the intellectual life of the school and university and the students can hardly wait for it to start!