Thursday, September 10, 2009

And the Winners Are -- Happy 5th Birthday and a Chapter like the United Nations



Yesterday, the UMass Amherst Student Chapter of INFORMS (the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences) held its first meeting of the new academic year and elected the new roster of officers. Yesterday, September 9, 2009 (9/9/09), also marked the fifth anniversary of the first meeting of the chapter, after a period of dormancy (and you can read the minutes of meetings on the above chapter website). As Faculty Advisor to this terrific chapter, whose members hail from not only the Isenberg School of Management, but also from the College of Engineering, the Department of Computer Science at UMass and other departments, I would like to congratulate all the elected new officers (see the above website for their names). Both the officers and all the chapter members are true winners! For example, how thoughtful of last year's Chapter President, Amir Masoumi, to bring a chocolate frosted birthday cake to the meeting yesterday to celebrate the 5 year milestone!

The chapter reminds me of a mini- United Nations. Its members come from the United States, China, India, Iran, Turkey, Armenia, Thailand, and Vietnam, to name a few countries of origin.

I leave you with the above photos, which should elicit smiles.