A Thank You to Barry List, Communications Director of INFORMS, Who is Retiring

I heard the news this morning, after my Humanitarian Logistics class and office hours. 

The message came via email (after Barry List had kindly retweeted a message that I had sent out on Dr. Michael Johnson's talk tomorrow at the Isenberg School in the UMass Amherst INFORMS Speaker Series),

The message said:

Hi, Anna,

After 18 years serving our association and its membership, I will retire from INFORMS this Friday.

I very much appreciate all the help and encouragement you gave me. I look forward to reading more about all the wonderful research that you and your students are conducting.

Very best wishes,

Barry List
A. Director, Communications
Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS)


I was simply stunned and, fully agree with  Dr. Paul Rubin who later tweeted: "he is too young to retire."

INFORMS has been my primary professional organization. What makes it truly special is the people - from its members to the INFORMS staff. Barry List was not only someone that many of us enjoyed seeing at INFORMS conferences but also one with whom we regularly communicated with  about professional activities and events. He would always listen and provide support and, as the Communications Director, kept the wonderful news about the research of our colleagues and the growth of our professional society front and center.

His network of contacts and his knowledge of our society members and its activities were vast and he always was a great champion of operations research and the management sciences as well as analytics.  His press releases on INFORMS members' publications and achievements were always a pleasure to read.

I very much also enjoyed being interviewed by him for a podcast Supernetworks.and have listened to the many podcast interviews that he conducted. 

And when there was heartbreaking news such as the passing of Professor George Dantzig, it was Barry List, as the Communications Director of INFORMS,  who shared it with the world. 

Barry, you will be greatly missed. Thanks for the almost two decades with INFORMS and for all the terrific work that you did.

I hope that your wonderful adventures continue!