Thursday, September 17, 2009

Operations Research is Fascinating -- Dr. Helander of IBM on Food Safety in a Global Supply Chain and More

Operations Research is a Fascinating Subject with topics that capture one's attention. This is one theme that we try to get across (and we believe that we are succeeding) through our Speaker Series in Operations Research / Management Science.

Our Fall 2009 lineup begins tomorrow with the presentation of Dr. Mary Helander of IBM who will speak on Food Safety in a Global Supply Chain. The announcement of her presentation even made the UMass Amherst homepage 4 days before her talk, which is testament to the importance of her topic and interest surrounding it! Tomorrow, Friday, September 18, Dr. Helander will be giving her talk at the Isenberg School of Management at 11AM in Room 128. The UMass Amherst Student Chapter of INFORMS is delighted to be hosting her talk and visit. The talk is open to the public.

There is palpable excitement around our campus about our speakers and their topics this Fall. We begin our 2009 Fall Series with Dr. Helander's work on food safety and supply chains and our series will end in December with Professor Brian Levine of the Department of Computer Science at UMass Amherst speaking on cyber forensics. Topics of importance and fascination --- those are themes that operations research and operations researchers and management scientists tackle!

You can read more about the speaker series and other activities that we have been involved in, in the Fall 2009 edition of the Supernetwork Sentinel.