Excited to Be Teaching My Humanitarian Logistics and Healthcare Class

The morning temperatures in Amherst, MA have been below 0 degrees the past few days and it has been a challenging winter with a lot of snow.

However, yesterday the new "spring" semester at UMass Amherst began and it was energizing to meet the students in my Humanitarian Logistics and Healthcare class. The course meets Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 8:30AM at the Isenberg School of Management.

The students come not only from the business school but also from the School of Public Health, the Riccio College of Engineering, and even the Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences.

I arrived in the classroom at 8:00AM because I wanted to make sure the technology was working well.

The first student arrived shortly thereafter and he drove from Boston (about 2 hours). He is working towards 2 Master's degrees at the Isenberg School - an MBA and a Master's in Business Analytics. Another student is also working on these two degrees and has 3 children under the age of 4. I was so impressed and inspired by the students - I asked them to share some background about themselves and their interest in the course, and also to provide a "fun fact."

One student is a lawyer and several of the students have traveled widely even during the January break (to Croatia and Japan). One of the students is on an athletic team and will be traveling a lot to games.

I told the students that I have some excellent guest speakers lined up and am also planning on a field trip. They were very excited about having a field trip.

The students give us hope (much needed these days).

I am very much looking forward to an engaging and exciting semester.

Excellent INFORMS Tune-Up Event Hosted by the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter!

Yesterday, the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter held its annual INFORMS Tune-Up event at which PhD students, who are chapter members, practice the presentations that they will give at the upcoming INFORMS Annual Meeting. This year, the conference will take place in Atlanta, Georgia, October 26-29, 2025. The website for the conference is here: https://www.informs.org/Meetings-Conferences/INFORMS-Conference-Calendar/2025-INFORMS-Annual-Meeting

The presenters and their titles are on the poster below.

It was great to have speakers from the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department (MIE) at UMass Amherst as well as from the Operations and Information Management (OIM) Department.

I very much enjoyed all the talks. Ali Jafari and Yukti Kathuria are from MIE and Samira Samadi, Ismael Pour, and Dana Hassani are from the OM side of OIM. The latter three are also my PhD students.

The audience included faculty and students and valuable comments and suggestions were given on the presentations and there were also great questions. It was an excellent practice session.

The presentations by Ali and Yukti focused on on unsupervised learning approaches and Bayesian networks to healthcare, respectively, and those by Samira, Ismael, and Dana were on food quality under trade disruptions, integrated crop and cargo war risk insurance, and the quantification of international trade network performance, respectively.

Samira's presentation was based on  a paper that we co-authored with Professor Deniz Besik of the University of Richmond.

Ismael's paper was based on a paper that we co-authored with Professor Borys Kormych of the Odesa Law Academy and which is the lead article in the January (2026) issue of the International Transactions in Operational Research. It is available for free here: 

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/itor.70038?af=R

Dana's paper, in turn, was also co-authored with me, and with colleagues at the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE), Oleg Nivievskyi and Pavlo Martyshev. The paper was published in the latest Dynamics of Disasters  (2024) co-edited volume: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-74006-0_7

Special thanks to faculty: Professor Peter Haas of the Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences, UMass Amherst, Professor Hari Balasubramanian of MIE,  and Professor Zihao Qu of OIM for taking the time to support the students and offering their suggestions. 

I took the nice photo below:

The pizza, fresh fruit, and coffee were delicious.

This student chapter will be recognized at the INFORMS Atlanta conference with the Cum Laude Award on October 27. We will have a nice group there to receive the award and to also celebrate!

I have been the chapter's Faculty Advisor since its inception in 2004 and have very much enjoyed seeing how the students have grown professionally and socially. I stay in touch with many once they receive their PhDs and go on to careers either in academia or industry!

Kudos to the Organizers of the First International Virtual Conference on Ukraine

Today we mark Ukraine's Independence Day (33 years of independence) and the past two days I had the distinct pleasure of taking part in the first International Virtual Conference on Ukraine. It was excellent and I wanted to express my thanks to Professors Almas Heshmati, Lars Hartvigson, and Olena Nizalova for putting together such a timely and interesting program. It was laudable how the scheduling was done with speakers and participants from Hawaii, California, Texas, Massachusetts, multiple European countries, including Ukraine, as well as Vietnam, Australia, and Morroco!

Jonkoping International Business School (JIBS) in Sweden was the host of this virtual conference, in collaboration with its partners.

I took a snapshot of the closing session, which is posted below.

Each day, the conference began at 3AM, my time; but, despite this, I thoroughly enjoyed the sessions that I managed to join and, of course, it was an honor to present our latest research with my PhD student Dana Hassani and Kyiv School of Economics colleagues Oleg Nivievski and Pavlo Martyshev.

The presentation was based on our paper, noted above, which will be published any day now in the INFORMS journal Transportation Science. The slide deck of our presentation can be downloaded here. I was delighted that all the co-authors of our paper were present! Plus, I enjoyed "seeing" colleagues in Ukraine, with whom I have also published: Elena Besedina of the Kyiv School of Economics and Myroslava Kushnir of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv.

I also thoroughly enjoyed being on a panel with: 

Pham Khanh NAM, UEH University Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Hans LÖÖF, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden

Vesa KANNIAINEN, University of Helsinki, Finland

Mykola TKACHENKO, CEO of SOE Prozorro (Transparency), Ukraine.

Yuriy BILAN, regrettably, could not make our panel, as scheduled.

A remarkable amount of information was exchanged and the discussions were terrific.

The keynote talks by Roman Sheremeta and Yuriy Gorodnichenko were excellent! I wish that all presentations could have been recorded and posted since with the different time zones it was challenging to hear all in real time.

Themes that resonated throughout included: the resilience of Ukrainians; the fact that Russia's war on Ukraine is a massive threat to global security; Ukraine needs immense support from its allies; economic & military aid to Ukraine is the best investment; agriculture and IT continue to be shining lights in Ukraine whereas steel production has essentially collapsed; investing in transportation routes is critical and keeping maritime routes safe and efficient; human capital must be brought back and nurtured; security is of the utmost importance; damages are immense to educational institutions, healthcare, critical infrastructure (energy, transportation, logistics, supply chains), and the environment, and so much more!

I was impressed how much researchers and practitioners and even PhD students who took part want to help. There was emphasis on the need to get research results in front of policy and decision-makers more quickly.

Information on this conference can be found here. 

The full program has been posted here.

Honored to Have Played a Part in Influencing National Policy on Blood Supply Chains

For quite a few years, my research group and I have been very engaged in studying and writing about blood supply chains. Blood is a unique product that is life-saving and that cannot be produced but must be donated.

Our work on blood supply chains is part of our broader work on perishable product supply chains and we even wrote a book on the topic that was published a decade ago.

During this festive time of the year with the holiday season, there are also often blood shortages, and, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, I was greatly concerned about the shortages. One day after the WHO declared the pandemic, I published my article, "How coronavirus is upsetting the blood supply chain," in The Conversation. The article was reprinted on multiple news sites, from Live Science to Salon. 

I am deeply humbled and honored that my article on blood shortages in the COVID-19 pandemic, has influenced national policy not once, but twice. On March 31, 2023, 22 Attorneys General signed a memo to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Robert Califf, and my article was cited first

The full memorandum can be accessed here.

Therein is also a citation to the April 22, 2020 memo from 20 Attorneys General, including Maura Healey, now our Massachusetts Governor, to the Honorable Admiral Brett Giroir, MD, at that time the Assistant Secretary for Health, with my article also as the first citation.

On May 11, 2023, the FDA finalized individual risk assessment guidelines for blood donation eligibility. 

In my discipline of Operations Research, as well as in Economics, we try to "Do Good" to improve social welfare and well-being. The tools that we use include analytical techniques, mathematical models, research studies, and, of course, education of students. However, as I often state in invited conference talks and seminars that I give,  it is also critical to get results out where they can be applied.

That is why I continue to write essays and OpEds that can reach a broader community, as my article on blood shortages has.

 I am very glad that the American Red Cross has now adopted a more inclusive blood donation policy, following the FDA recommendations.

 More blood centers are following the FDA revised guidelines with this article, appearing just a few days ago on the PBS News Hour, noting other blood centers following suit, including one in the Pacific Northwest. The donors, who can now give blood, are grateful and, I am sure, the recipients are as well.

Thanking Mr. David Gutierrez of the American Red Cross for His Brilliant Guest Lecture in My Humanitarian Logistics & Healthcare Class

Having expert practitioners speak to students and share their experiences and lessons from the field supports transformative education.

Last week, we had the honor and pleasure of hosting Mr. David Gutierrez of the American Red Cross (ARC) as a guest lecturer in my Humanitarian Logistics and Healthcare class at the Isenberg School of Management. Mr. Gutierrez was an outstanding Professor for a Day! The certificate was kindly signed by the Isenberg School Dean - Dr. Anne P. Massey.

The original date of his lecture was rescheduled because he had been intensively responding to the aftermath of the tornado in Rolling Fork, Mississippi.

Mr. David Gutierrez in the Senior Director of the National Incident Command Team of the American Red Cross. The National Incident Command Team was established about 1 year ago due to the unprecedented number of disasters. According to Mr. Gutierrez: "disasters have been nonstop." The ARC has been dealing with many challenges including climate displacement.

Mr. Gutierrez shared his "story" with us and his incredible career with the ARC, which continues. Professionally, he started out as a High School teacher and began volunteering with the ARC in 1992. Over more than three decades, he has served in various roles including: Health & Safety Director, AFES Station Manager, Chapter Executive, Chapter Operations Manager, State Relations Disaster Liaison, State Resource Office Coordinator, Emergency Services Director, State Disaster Officer, Division Disaster Director and Division Disaster Executive. In his current role as the Senior Director for the National Incident Command Team, he is responsible for initiating a Red Cross disaster response for level 5 disasters and higher. This includes oversight and direction of all activities related to disaster leadership development, disaster response training, partnerships with government and non-government agencies, and capacity building for the organization. An example of a  level 1 disaster is a house fire, that the ARC would also respond to.

He spoke about the 3Hs - Health, Hunger, and Housing, and how the ARC provides security to victims of disasters for up to 1 year. Many of those impacted by disasters are experiencing poverty and disasters create further stressors on the most vulnerable. The #1 priority of the National Incident Command Team is to respond. The other priority is to build capacity and to make sure that the workforce is trained. The students were very inspired and also amazed that 98% of the ARC workforce consists of volunteers! I very much appreciated that Mr. David Gutierrez noted the relevance of the logistics behind the workforce and in getting the workers to impacted areas in a timely manner. Sometimes there can be as many as 2,000 volunteers. The ARC pays for the travel expenses as well as the room and board. He discussed the specific case of Hurricane Ian and the impact on Tampa Bay, along with the response of the ARC.

Mr. Gutierrez has deployed to over 50 relief operations throughout his tenure with the Red Cross. He also serves as a National Disaster Relief Operation Job Director for the ARC. He served as the job director for Hurricane Ian, Hurricane Laura, Hurricane Ida, and Hurricane Harvey. In the role of job director, Mr. Gutierrez is responsible for leading a team of individuals who provide a range of clients with a comfortable, safe, welcoming environment by delivering mass care services, which include shelter, feeding, distribution of relief supplies, reunification, Disaster Health Services, Disaster Mental Health Services, Disaster Spiritual Care, Casework and Recovery Planning, and access to a host of services provided by partners in the community.

He emphasized the importance of needs assessment and in learning from previous disaster experiences. This reinforced what the students have learned from other guest speakers this semester, including Dr. George Karagiannis of Resilience First and Mr. Jeff Hescock of UMass Amherst! Lessons learned must be captured and shared. He also noted the necessity behind collaboration with partners; coordination with response partners, and also effective communication.

Mr. Gutierrez's dedication to the American Red Cross shone through his presentation  Along with his team,  he works to ensure timely, efficient disaster response efforts, ensuring that local community organizations and the Red Cross are coordinating and collaborating in order to efficiently and effectively meet community needs.

Mr. Gutierrez is a role model. His dedication, work ethic, kindness, and effectiveness are awe-inspiring. On behalf of my students, and all those that he and his team have helped, I send my deepest gratitude.

In Appreciation of the Wonderful Guest Speakers in My Humanitarian Logistics and Healthcare Class

As the semester draws to a close, as well as the academic year, I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank the wonderful guest speakers in my Humanitarian Logistics and Healthcare class this semester. In a class such as this, the students learn a tremendous amount from practitioners and, even more so, given their immense challenges because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On February 18, 2021, we had the honor of hearing from Mr. Tim Pitoniak, who is a Regional Disaster Program Officer for the American Red Cross (ARC) in Massachusetts. Mr. Pitoniak spent the first 10 years of his Red Cross career in Greater New York where his focus was staffing, training, and partnerships. He assumed his position in Massachusetts in 2015 and has been the job director for multiple large operations, including the 2018 Lawrence gas explosion. He has regularly been deployed to national jobs, working in leadership roles for disasters all over the continental U.S.  and Puerto Rico. Mr. Pitoniak shared with us the challenges the Red Cross has faced in the pandemic and how it has been able to provide certain support services virtually, because of the need for social distancing. The students were amazed by the number of volunteers associated with the ARC and also how they are constantly adapting to provide a wide range of services, and not only to disaster victims.

On March 2, 2021, we were honored to have Dr. George Karagiannis Zoom in all the way from Athens, Greece for his guest lecture. Dr. Karagiannis is Greece's Deputy Secretary-General for Civil Protection, the US equivalent of Deputy FEMA Administrator. From 2016 to 2019, he was a Technical Officer at the European Commission Joint Research Center, where his area of expertise revolved around emergency management, critical infrastructure protection, and hybrid threats. Prior to joining the Joint Research Center, he was a Disaster Management Consultant. The title of his guest lecture was, "Humanitarian Needs Assessment & Information Management."  So many of the insights provided by Dr. Karagiannis resonated with the students, including his emphasis on the use of technology and even AI for needs assessment. And he also told the class that, despite what you see on TV and in the movies, one rarely gains much information from helicopter rides over disaster areas. Additional information and discussion during his great talk can be found on my blogpost here.

I am delighted that Dr. Karagiannis has accepted our invitation to be a plenary speaker at the next Dynamics of Disasters conference that I am, again, co-organizing with Professors Kotsireas and Pardalos, but this time it will be virtual. More information can be accessed here with additional information being posted in the coming weeks.

On March 11, 2021, the students and I were thrilled to have Ms, Dawn Brantley present to the class. She is the Assistant Director for Planning and Preparedness for MEMA (Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency) and was responsible for establishing  a program of COVID Isolation Hotels, which was also the topic of her presentation. The subtitle of it (and this spoke volumes) was: "building a plane while you fly it." Her presentation was absolutely mesmerizing. The initiative was made operational in 7 days and the logistics behind it were incredible, with so many issues such as food provision, laundry services, nursing care, and so much more needed. And to accomplish so much with attention having to be paid to COVID protocols. It was not easy getting certain hotels "on board," especially with some local communities not being supportive.

The dedication of Ms. Brantley to this important enterprise and that of her team were truly inspiring! The ARC had also been assisting in this endeavor so there was some nice synergy with Mr. Pitoniak's guest lecture. March 11, 2021, the day of Ms. Brantley's presentation,  was  the one year anniversary of the World Health Organization declaring the COVID-19 pandemic!

I cannot thank all the speakers sufficiently - they were fighting the pandemic on the front lines and still made time to help in the education of students.  They left a lasting impact and were part of a transformative educational experience. Each was presented with a special letter that I wrote as well as a certificate signed by our great Dean Anne P. Massey in appreciation.

On March 23, 2021, we had the Nursing Director Team from Cooley Dickinson Hospital present to my class. The title of the panel presentation was,  "Cooley Dickinson Hospital: A Year of COVID: Readiness, Response and Resilience." There were 8 speakers who shared with us their incredible work in transforming parts of the hospital to be able to handle more COVID patients and how personnel were retrained and needed PPEs acquired. 

No healthcare worker contracted COVID, which is, frankly, remarkable and such a relief. I wrote an earlier blogpost on the nursing team and sent my thank you letter to the Interim Director of Cooley Dickinson Hospital, Dr. Brown, who responded so quickly. Some of the lessons learned included the importance of communications and appreciating the workers' fatigue and challenges.

The team also shared a video with us and there was not a dry eye in the audience. I would like to, again, thank the incredible panelists: Angela Belmont, VP, Patient Care Services & Chief Nursing Officer, Lynn M. Grondin, Director of Nursing for Perioperative and CVIR Services, Mike Netta, Director of Operations for Perioperative and CVIR Services, Alexandra Penzias, Director of Nursing and Professional Practice Education, Sara C. McKeown, Nurse Director, Emergency Department, Ann LeBrun, Nursing Director, Critical Care Services, Margaret-Ann Azzaro, Director, Medical Surgical & Childbirth Services, Jacquelyn Ouellette, Director, Behavioral Unit.

On March 30, we had our very "own" Mr. Jeff Hescock join us. Mr. Hescock is the Executive Director of EH&S and Emergency Management at UMass Amherst. The students have been receiving many messages from Mr. Hescock since the pandemic was declared and he, along with his staff and Ms. Ann Becker, have been behind our outstanding COVID-19 testing and now vaccinations! On the day that he spoke, Mr. Hescock told us that UMass Amherst had by then done 400,000 COVID tests and 16,000 vaccinations! He emphasized the important role of testing, contact tracing, and also isolation quarters at UMass Amherst as well as the role of our nursing students in testing and vaccinations. It has been an extraordinary team effort and the students, the community at large, the faculty, and staff are so grateful for the outstanding work of Mr. Hescock and his team in keeping us safe.

The students, as well as I, learned so much from our guest speakers and each left an indelible impression on us. 

The Covid-19 Vaccine Cold Chain

On September 18, 2020 my article, "Keeping coronavirus vaccines at subzero temperatures during distribution will be hard, but likely key to ending pandemic," was published in The Conversation. I believed that it was imperative (and my Editors at The Conversation agreed) to start speaking to a broad audience on the necessity and importance of the cold chain to the effective distribution of the Covid-19 vaccines that are presently under development by major pharmaceutical firms.  There was much discussion and coverage in the press about the manufacturing aspects of the different vaccines as well as the R&D involved. However, there was very little being discussed about the distribution issues.  It was imperative to me  that emphasis (and associated challenges) on getting the approved vaccines ultimately from point A (manufacturing) to point B (point of administering of the vaccine), with the quality preserved in the transportation and distribution process, be brought to everyone's attention.

I have conducted research on perishable product supply chains from food to pharmaceuticals and even co-authored a book on the topic.

There are now 4 major Covid-19 vaccines that are far along in the trial phases and this is quite promising, with the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines requiring storage below freezing (Pfizer's to the extreme temp of -94 F) with those of Astrazeneca's and John & Johnson's needing to be in the range of 2-8 degrees C, which is standard for many vaccines. 

I have published multiple articles in The Conversation, but this one generated the greatest number of comments and even emails to me from around the globe, which continue. Clearly, the article that I wrote had touched on a very important issue, and I am also grateful that the article got reprinted in multiple media outlets.

Since the publication of my article, much has happened, and the momentum keeps on growing.

I had the pleasure of being interviewed by David Williams and John Driscoll for their Care Talk podcast, the link to which is below. 

 

Lori Hinnant, who is an Associated Press journalist, based in Paris, subsequently interviewed me for a fabulous article, "Vaccine storage issues could leave 3B without access."  My colleague at the Carey School of Business at Johns Hopkins, Tinglong Dai, was also interviewed for this article, which has been reprinted internationally in numerous outlets and also published in The Washington Post and ABCNews.

I have had additional interviews with journalists at The Wall Street Journal and am quoted in the article, "Covid-19 vaccines to be stored secretly under tight security," by Jared S. Hopkins on the security of the distribution of the vaccine. There is a slightly modified title in the hard copy version - a colleague kindly delivered his copy to my door!

I've done research with collaborators on freight security of highly value cargo and clearly the Covid-19 vaccines fall into this category!

And, on November 6, I will be featured on the NPR show The Pulse, based on an interview on the vaccine cold chain conducted by Alan Yu.

One of the goals of my Conversation article was to make the cold chain distribution issues more visible in order that appropriate preparedness measures would be taken, both nationally and globally, so that, once vaccines are approved, time is not wasted and the vaccines do not go to waste as well.

Many thanks to all those who have responded, including the amazing journalists, who continue to keep this important topic in the news!

And, just before publishing this blogpost, I received another inquiry from a journalist requesting an interview because of my article in The Conversation!

Fabulous Guest Lecture by a MEMA Expert on the Boston Marathon - Public Safety and Security Experience

Having expert practitioners speak to students in my Humanitarian Logistics and Healthcare class provides outstanding educational experiences that stay with students even after they graduate. The logistics of scheduling experts can, in itself, be challenging, but the risks reap great rewards.

This past Tuesday, we had the honor of hosting Ms. Sara Zalieckas, who is an All Hazards Planner with MEMA (Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency) and is based in Framingham, Massachusetts (about a two hour drive to UMass Amherst). She arrived in time for the early morning class, which meets from 8:30AM-9:45AM and, although I was waiting for her in the original atrium to escort her to the classroom, and she was in the new $62million addition to the Isenberg School,  we connected in time!

Ms Zalieckas is a Canadian, which made me extra excited since I was also born in Canada, and, in fact, had been to Halifax last summer to present at the CORS (Canadian Operations Research Society) conference, where she is from! She has worked for MEMA since 2012 and, hence, was employed by MEMA, when the bombing at the Boston Marathon took place on April 15, 2013.

The title of her guest lecture was: The Boston Marathon - Public Safety and Security Experience.

This year's Boston Marathon is taking place on April 15, 2019.

Ms. Zalieckas informed us of the extensive planning involved among multiple organizations to ensure the safety and security of runners, volunteers, supporters, and spectators alike in this major sports event, which covers over 26 miles (I have run several Ocean State marathons in RI, so I understand the energy and athleticism involved). It is considered the most challenging sports event to secure in the country. The Super Bowl is in one location, in contrast, for example. In 2013, there were 27,000 registered runners and the weather was ideal. In 2019, 60,000 runners are expected.

Rather than detailing the horrific attacks at the 2013 Boston Marathon, I will refer you to a blogpost I wrote following the guest lecture of Dr. Pierre Rouzier, who is a sports medicine physician, based at UMass Amherst, and who was working in a triage tent at that Marathon.

Post 2013, the focus  has been on lessons learned, and on assessing vulnerabilities and threats. Ms. Zalieckas brought to our attention, the 2013 Boston Marathon after action report, which can be accessed here.

Previously, jurisdictions had been working in silos, which was understandable since the marathon course covers a distance of over 26 miles.  Now there is a Unified Coordination Plan, with plans for evacuations, should the need arise, along the course in multiple locations, with even alternative routes to shelters along the Boston Marathon route identified, along with transportation options, such as buses staged. This I found truly fascinating. Now there is a joint information center and system, so that rumors, which are unsubstantiated, do not propagate, along with misinformation. There are also station "blocking" vehicles along the course.

The level of detail and the organizations involved to ensure public safety and security is extraordinary. More intense planning has been taking place since January 2019 to test out communications, to run tabletop exercises and training, to conduct intelligence and investigations (with appropriate federal partners), and to also address how to respond to mass casualty events. I also found it very impressive that MEMA, along with partners, has structured coordination of decision making and there is now a Unified Coordination Center. You may know that the MEMA headquarters in Framingham is actually an underground bunker built during the Cold War and our President at that time, John F. Kennedy, was to inaugurate its opening, but he was assassinated.

It is also so impressive that there is!a drone response plan is in place for the Boston Marathon and, of course, GIS is also utilized to monitor congestion along the route.

Ms. Sara Zaieckas' guest lecture was mesmerizing. I also was very pleased that we had a female speaker this term (and will be having another one next month).

We took a group photo after her guest lecture.

In appreciation, we presented Ms. Zalieckas with a gift from the Isenberg School of Management, and I followed up with several photos and a formal thank you letter, which I also copied to the new Director of MEMA, Ms. Samantha Phillips, which was recently appointed to this important most by Governor Charlie Baker. Quite exciting to have a female at the helm of MEMA!

I wish all the runners, the volunteers, supporters, and spectators, as well as the emergency management folks and their liaisons, a wonderful and safe 2019 Boston Marathon! We will be watching and cheering from near and far!

Thoroughly Enjoyed Giving the Omega Rho Plenary Lecture - Networks to Save the World: Operations Research (OR) in Action

Professor Tim Anderson, the President of the Omega Rho Society, with an illustrious board, had reached out to me many months ago and shared with me that it was being  recommended that I be the 2018 Omega Rho Distinguished Lecturer. This would involve giving a plenary address at the INFORMS 2018 meeting in Phoenix, November 4-7. I was greatly honored and delighted and was subsequently officially notified (after further approvals) by the conference organizing committee and the plenary and keynote chairs. The general chair of this year's conference was Dr. Young-Jun Son, Professor and Head of the Systems and Industrial Engineering Department at the University of Arizona, who deserves kudos!

The list of previous Omega Rho plenary speakers can be viewed here and it is truly a list of luminaries. I have had the pleasure of being at several of these distinguished lectures over the years.

I would be standing on the "shoulders of giants" so I wanted to deliver a talk that would be inspiring, from the heart, very informative; one that I would enjoy giving and that the audience would enjoy as well! The title that I selected was: Networks to Save the World: OR in Action. This was an exceptional INFORMS conference for numerous reasons, including  the number of female plenary and keynote speakers.

I had worked on my presentation over many weeks, giving it a lot of thought and effort and was very excited for the opportunity to share experiences and insights with operations research and analytics colleagues from around the globe, from students to very senior colleagues.

After a full day of travel on Saturday, I was very "pumped" for my talk at 3:10PM (my body clock said it was 6:10PM). It was extra special to see so many of our UMass Amherst Isenberg School of Management PhD alumni and also College of Engineering alumni showing up early to welcome me in the big ballroom. It was also great to have two of my present doctoral students, Deniz Besik and Pritha Dutta, come with backups of my talk and they also served as photographers.

 Professor Tim Anderson gave a very warm introduction and then it was time for my lecture!

I had to acknowledge the work of my dissertation advisor at Brown University, Professor Stella Dafermos, depicted in the above slide. I also included in my talk the awesome academic pedigree that I am part of - thanks to the Mathematics academic genealogy project with the outstanding scientists: Maxwell, going back to Newton, and even Galileo, being part of my academic genealogy.

In my talk, I discussed many application of networks from transportation and the Braess paradox to perishable product supply chains from food to healthcare to disaster relief and even our project on Future Internet Architecture, known as ChoiceNet.

After my presentation, I had many questions, and it was thrilling to have members of the audience come up to chat. I can't thank everyone personally, but I do want to say that I am extremely appreciative. I am also very grateful for the thoughtful gift presented to me after my lecture by Professor Tim Anderson and INFORMS! Special thanks to the INFORMS staff who came to my plenary talk and for their kind comments that they enjoyed it very much.

As promised, I have posted the slides from my Omega Rho plenary talk on the Supernetwork Center website.

A big thanks to Zulqarnain Haider for writing a blogpost on my plenary on the conference website.

After the plenary, it was time for an editorial board meeting and then I wrapped up a perfect day by hosting my doctoral students (both past and present) who had made it to the conference by Sunday (others were coming on subsequent days) for dinner.

In the above photo are: Dr. Jose Cruz, Dr. Shivani Shukla, Dr. Min Yu, Dr. Amir Masoumi, Deniz Besik, Pritha Dutta, Dr. Dmytro Matsypura, who traveled all the way from Sydney, Australia, and even brought his doctoral student, Jessica. It was her first INFORMS conference and her first scholarly presentation.

The past, present, and future of OR are a powerful network of scholarship and community! I am so lucky to be part of INFORMS and this fabulous profession.

Humanitarian Logistics Class Field Trip to the North Amherst Fire Station and a Public Thank You

On April 24, 2018, the students in my Humanitarian Logistics and Healthcare class at the Isenberg School and I had the special experience of taking a field trip to the North Amherst fire station, which is located at the corner of East Pleasant Street and Eastman Lane in the tow n of Amherst, Massachusetts. I was delighted to see that several students bicycled (one even used a UMass shared bicycle); some took the bus, and a few drove. The class would meet from 8:30-9:45AM so this was also the time for this very special field trip.

I would like to publicly thank the great Amherst Town Fire Department Chief Tim Nelson, and his outstanding team of firefighters, for this very special educational experience. In fact, it was hard to pull the students (and me) away at 10AM, even though several students had classes meeting down the hill at the UMass Amherst campus, afterwards!

The field trip began with an overview by Chief Tim Nelson as to the operations of the fire department and that it serves a community of 125 square miles with, typically, about 6,000 service calls a year. One aspect of the firefighters that is quite exceptional is that they are all cross-trained as EMTs, which many of the students marveled at. That very morning, there had already been 3 service calls before 7AM. The crew works quite an interesting schedule: 24 hours on, one day off; 24 hours on, and then 5 days off.  Given that the population that they serve includes 25,000 students in just the UMass Amherst campus alone plus a wide range of ages of the neighboring population, the challenges are immense. The Amherst Fire Department provides extraordinary services with limited resources. For example, the neighboring city of Northampton has twice the firefighting staff as does Amherst.

It was a wonderful overview presentation with the Fire Chief and the firefighters chiming in and answering many questions that we had. Given the community that we live in, the Fire Chief told us that, if something goes wrong, it is, typically, the fire department that gets called, whether it is electric or plumbing problems or cats stuck in trees and, of course, a variety of medical emergencies as well as fires. He spoke of the importance of emergency preparedness and shared with us that the department had already prepared for the Cardi B concert that was to take place the next day at the Mullins Center (yes, I had one student go) since UMass Amherst had beat out over 5 dozen universities to earn this free concert with 7,500 tickets given out.

Highlights of the field trip included exploring the stunning fire trucks and the ambulances! I was told that, because of the height of firetruck ladders, I should never stay in a hotel room above 7 stories - advice, which I think many of us will heed.

 

The students and I truly appreciated this field trip and one student told me that although she has relatives who are firefighters and EMTs, this was the first time she got to experience the work environment and equipment firsthand!

And, only a few days after our field trip, early Sunday morning, the Amherst Fire Department made heroic rescues of students (including several Isenberg School ones) from an apartment building that was on fire. Fire Chief Nelson called the fire: "One of those nightmare situations." One of the Isenberg School students in my class, who works in housing, that Monday morning helped to relocate students and even to provide pillows, etc. many of the students are seniors who are graduating next week and lost mostly everything.

Our community is truly blessed to have such hometown heroes as Fire Chief Tim Nelson and his firefighting crew! I purchased a Thank You card, which the students and I signed, and we sent it to the Chief. I also wrote a formal thank you letter and forwarded it to the Amherst Town Manager, Paul Bockelman, and to the Isenberg School Dean, Dr. Mark A. Fuller, since we all so much appreciated the experience and the incredible work that these brave firefighters/EMTs do! And, yes, we even got to meet one of the female firefighters, who returned from a service run.

Meningitis on Campus - An Extremely Timely Lecture by a Public Health Nurse Extraordinaire

Yesterday was the final guest lecture in my Humanitarian Logistics and Healthcare class this semester at the Isenberg School and it was extremely timely and interesting.

The students and I had the privilege of hearing from Ms. Ann Becker, who is the University Health Services (UHS) Public Health Nurse and the Unit Coordinator for the Medical Reserve Corps at  UMass Amherst.

The title of her guest lecture was: Meningitis on Campus - Reaching Students During a Meningitis-B Outbreak.

As some of you may have heard, this past Fall there were two cases of Meningits-B, one in late October, and the other three weeks after. Since no linkages between the two cases could be identified, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) termed these cases an outbreak. Students get vaccinated for other strains regularly but not for the B strain. And, in early March, the CDC confirmed that another case was diagnosed in a Smith College student, so this is now a 5 College outbreak. 

This disease is very rare but it can progress rapidly with extremely dire effects.  I remember last semester when I was teaching my Transportation and Logistics class at the Isenberg School that one of the students in this class knew the first student to contract meningitis-B because they were both in the same fraternity, and he was involved in helping to raise funds for the student's care and recovery.

10-40% of 16-24 year olds are carriers of this bacteria, and the illness is transmitted through direct contact with secretions. Risk factors include large parties and sharing of drinks, cigarettes, etc., and being stressed and not sleeping enough only increases the probability of contagion. It takes at least a week to identify the meningitis strain from a culture and these were sent both to the Massachusetts DPH and the CDC.

The UMass Amherst campus responded extremely professionally. There had actually been simulation exercises in place for a mass vaccination and I had even blogged about this. This was inspired by the cases in the US a few years back on college campuses, including Princeton University. And, at that time, there was not even a vaccine available in the US (but was in Europe). 

The UMass Amherst campus responded with an emergency call center, since, once the news went out, the staff was inundated with calls. Staffing was identified for the initial vaccination clinics and vaccine supply and cold storage had to be managed. It was interesting to hear that the annual flu clinics also served as a prep for the mass vaccination clinics. UMass Amherst, as a university, is in the business of education, and it was essential to have no disruptions to courses. The healthcare staff, with assistance from nursing students and the Medical Reserve Corp, in 3 hours gave 700 vaccinations. "Being prepared and knowing people" helped in the efficiency of the processes as well as their effectiveness. The cost for 10,000 doses was $1.5 million from Glaxo Smith.

In order to reach students, there were numerous communication media that were utilized - from social media and emails to the notification of parents and having a dedicated strip banner with info on the UMass homepage. Also, the MA DPH sent out messages to every healthcare provider in the state. Two shots are required for the vaccine and there was a one week Thanksgiving break in late November with some students also getting their first vaccines from their home healthcare providers.

UMass Amherst had 4 walkin clinics over consecutive days from noon until 6PM and Ms. Becker showed the class an excellent diagram with the flow of the process, which is something all the Operations students enjoyed and appreciated. It began with the registration and asking for the insurance (if students or insurers could not pay, then (bravo) UMass Amherst covered the expense). Impressively, the number vaccinated reached 1,500 per day with the longest wait time of 20 minutes, which is not bad, given the volume of students as well as the severity of the disease.

It was interesting to hear that the processes were aided by the youth of those vaccinated and that they were all ambulatory.

There are still unknowns, however, since we don't have an accurate count of how many students have received the two shots that are needed, as Ms. Becker pointed out in her lecture.  Interestingly, she also mentioned that, after a year of no more outbreaks, can we be considered "in the clear." They do know that more than 3,000 + students have already had 2 shots.

Our University Health Services are continuing with walk-in clinics, which is great and also reassuring, and they have also done an amazing job in educating students as to proper behavior so that this bacteria does not spread.

We presented our fabulous guest lecturer with a certificate and a gift from the Isenberg School and took the group photo below as a memento.

And, in her last slide of her presentation, featured above, we can see our Chancellor, Dr. Kumble Subbaswamy, "saying": Get Vaccinated.

It was very special to have Ms. Becker speak to my class and her expertise and kindness are truly inspiring. We are very lucky to have her at UHS at UMass Amherst!