Three Women Write a Book on Environmental Networks -- Was it Too Early?

In 1999, two of my former doctoral students, Kanwalroop "Kathy" Dhanda and Padma Ramanujam, both of whom were from India, and I had our book, "Environmental Networks: A Framework for Economic Decision-Making and Policy Analysis," published by Edward Elgar Publishing in the series: New Horizons in Environmental Economics.

The book was based on years of our research and publications that we had authored and co-authored that had appeared in such top journals as: Operations Research, Transportation Science, Networks, the Journal of Regional Science, and Energy Economics, among others.

I always wondered, how many books, even of a nontechnical nature, have been published with three (or more) females as co-authors?

Now, with parts of the world reporting record-breaking summer heat and Congress mired in inertia regarding the passage of a major climate bill, as David Leonhardt writes in The New York Times, I thought it important to bring this book to the renewed attention of policy makers.

The book describes rigorous tools for the determination of pollution permits and taxes, and associated environmental emissions, from both stationary sources, such as firms, as well as from moving sources of pollution, such as vehicles. Padma's doctoral dissertation was on the latter topic and it was awarded the 1999 Transportation Science Section of INFORMS dissertation prize.

The Harvard economist, Richard Stavins, whose work we cited in our book, told Leonhardt recently that he would actually prefer a bill that cut emissions less in the short term but created a template for much bigger cuts in the future. Success, to me, would be the beginning of political acceptance of carbon pricing, he said.

Leonhardt believes that: A utility-only cap, even a flawed one, really would represent a whole different kind of progress than a souped-up version of fuel economy rules. A cap — any decent cap — remains the best benchmark of success.

Interestingly, the doctoral dissertation of my most recent PhD student to graduate, Dr. Trisha Woolley, entitled: "Sustainable Supply Chains: Multicriteria Decision-Making and Policy Analysis for the Environment," focuses on the electric power industry and utilities and considers both carbon taxes (either centralized or decentralized) as well as pollution permits.

In the next few weeks, before the Senate breaks for its August recess, or in September, before the midterm election campaign takes over, major issues regarding the climate bill will be decided, we expect and hope.

Rachel Carson with her book, "A Silent Spring," changed the world.

It is time for another book to do the same and break the legislators out of their inertia.

And yes, women do write "Big Ideas" books, something that Germaine Greer has even been emphasizing although, ironically, some of these books may be rather mathematical and scientific!

Forensic Engineering and Learning from Disasters

I have just about finished reading Henry Petroski's book, "The Essential Engineer," which was published in 2010. It is filled with excellent ideas about why engineering is different from science and how science and engineering and their practitioners and innovators must work together to address the grand challenges today from renewable energy to reducing vulnerability and even to securing cyberspace.

Henry Petroski is a professor of civil engineering and history at Duke University.

Coincidentally, in today's New York Times, there is an article by William Broad, "Taking Lessons from What Went Wrong," which begins with the eye-catching sentence: Disasters teach more than successes, with the overall thesis that disasters can spur innovation. The article includes an interview with Petroski and a graphic photo of the BP oil rig disaster.

Technological feats that define the modern world are sometimes the result of events that some might wish to forget, from the collapse of the Tacoma-Narrows bridge in 1940 due to winds (with no lives lost), to the collapse of the Minneapolis bridge in 2007 (with 13 lives lost), to the sinking of the Titanic on its maiden voyage (with over 1,500 deaths, some due to hypothermia), and even the World Trade Center disaster (with approximately 3,000 deaths). Now we are all reeling from the BP oil rig disaster with ups and downs on almost a daily basis as to progress or lack thereof regarding the spill containment and the propagation of the massive effects on the environment and affected economic sectors and regions.

According to Petroski, disasters are “ a great source of knowledge — and humbling, too — sometimes that’s necessary.” He is also the author of “Success Through Failure,” a 2006 book. “Nobody wants failures. But you also don’t want to let a good crisis go to waste.”

I had written earlier on this blog about forensic accounting and we had even hosted Dr. Brian Levine who spoke on his research on the forensic investigation of the Internet and mobile devices.

Our modern era demands a new area of expertise -- that of forensic engineering, which should clearly have risk management and policy analysis as essential constructs to assist in lessons learned (so mistakes do not get repeated in the future).

Interestingly, Petroski uses as vivid examples in both of his two books noted above the challenges of engineering design in the context of bridge design. He considers bridge designers as very creative individuals who develop mental constructs of a bridge, combined with aesthetics, and then design mathematically the functional structure, which, I might add, should last for many years and support the weight of numerous vehicles.

My uncle, Stanley Jarosz, is an award-winning bridge designer, who, although he is almost 92 years old, still works several days a week at an engineering firm. He is one of my greatest inspirations and an exceptional role model and gentleman (who, I might add, is also a big opera aficionado).

I had the pleasure recently of seeing my uncle and my terrific cousin, Andrew (who, I might add, is a fellow Brown University grad), in NYC. I discussed Petroski's "The Essential Engineer" with my uncle and noted Petroski's almost mystic adulation of bridge designers.

Solving the grand challenges faced by our civilization will require the cooperation and the working together of our best, creative minds, as well as capturing, in a quantifiable and rigorous manner, the risk associated with the resulting innovations.

Supply Chain Network Design and Redesign, Game Theory, and Nash Equilibria

There is a wonderful interview (but too short) by Ron Howard, the Director of the Academy Award winning movie, "A Beautiful Mind," with John F. Nash Jr., the 1994 Nobel laureate in Economic Sciences, in a trailer that accompanies the DVD of this movie. I had the pleasure of recently seeing both.

As John Nash walks away at the end of the interview, bundled up in a warm overcoat and knit cap, he ruefully comments that he has lost so many years and he needs to get back to research since that is what matters.

John Nash's contributions to game theory earned him the Nobel Prize. His work has influenced numerous disciplines, in addition to economics, notably, operations research and management science, political science, applied mathematics, and computer science.

I cite Nash's classical (1950) and (1951) papers in many of my papers that deal with competition.

For example, in a paper, "Supply Chain Network Design Under Profit Maximization and Oligopolistic Competition," which was published recently in the journal, Transportation Research E (2010), I devised a model in which firms seek to determine their optimal supply chain network designs in terms of manufacturing, storage, and shipment capacities, as well as product flows so as to maximize profits. The governing concept is that of a Nash - Cournot equilibrium. This model extends my earlier model in which a firm seeks to design (or redesign) its supply chain network so as to minimize its total costs associated with capacity enhancements (even from scratch) as well as the operational costs. In the latter, no competition was assumed. That study, "Optimal Supply Chain Network Design and Redesign at Minimal Total Cost with Demand Satisfaction," is in press in the International Journal of Production Economics.

High tech companies, including Samsung, Hewlett Packard, and IBM, as well as apparel companies from Benetton to Zara well understand the competitive advantages of careful cost control in supply chains. In addition, more and more companies, including Frito-Lay, Tesco, P&G, and Colgate are being recognized for their supply chain performance.

The analytical challenges of identifying not only the optimal capacities associated with various supply chain network activities, coupled with the optimal production quantities, storage volumes, as well as shipments are tremendous, since the possibilities of where to site manufacturing plants and distribution centers, for example, and at which capacities, may be great. Furthermore, the determination of the optimal supply chain network design (or redesign if a supply chain network already exists with some capacities) needs to be done in a rigorous manner that captures the system-wide nature of the problem.

I've also recently made use of the Nash equilibrium concept in devising a model to capture the gains of possible mergers and acquisitions of firms which are competitors. That paper, "Formulation and Analysis of Horizontal Mergers Among Oligopolistic Firms with Insights into the Merger Paradox: A Supply Chain Network Perspective," is in press in the journal Computational Management Science.

The algorithms that can be applied to determine the optimal designs of supply chain networks, operating either in a centralized manner or in a competitive, decentralized manner, are also reported in the above papers.

I agree with Nash that it is imperative to carve out the necessary time to do research.

News Highlights from the Isenberg School -- Business Schools and Research

The intellectual life of a university depends on the research of its faculty and the give and take with students through teaching and scholarship.

I teach and conduct research at the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst, which values interdisciplinarity. The academic departments at Isenberg clearly reflect this from my own department, Finance and Operations Management, to Resource Economics, Sport Management, and Hospitality and Tourism Management, plus even the more, shall I say, "classical" departments of Management, Marketing, and Accounting and Information Systems.

My department, in the last two years, has recruited two new Assistant Professors, Dr. Ahmed Ghoniem and Dr. Senay Solak, from Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech, respectively. Their work has already earned not only accolades but grants: Dr. Ghoniem has received funding from the Qatar National Research Fund to study how to minimize air traffic congestion whereas Dr. Solak has received funding from NSF to conduct research on housing foreclosures and nonprofit organizations.

Last year, we recruited the new Dean of the Isenberg School, Dr. Mark Fuller, whose appointment is also in my department (and, yes, I served on the search committees for all these hires, and chaired those of the two above).

Also, based on a proposal for a cluster hire that I, with colleagues in Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and even Communications, was involved in, we were able to recruit for a position in cyber security. Dr. Traci Hess and her husband, Dr. John Wells, both from Washington State University, will be joining my department this Fall as Associate Professors.

My colleagues conduct research on hedge funds, serve on FDA panels on food safety and risk, explore issues of privacy and marketing, to highlight only a few, very cool research topics.

My own research and passion is heavily focused on networks, especially on complex networks with applications as varied as supply chains, humanitarian logistics, financial networks, electric power generation, and transportation. My recent research has emphasized network design and fragility and vulnerability analysis with applications to critical needs and healthcare products from vaccines to medicines as well as sustainability.

Being in a business school, one can conduct research on the latest topics and this brings an energy and enthusiasm to the classroom which are palpable. Being trained in operations research and management science (my advisor at Brown University, Dr. Stella Dafermos, was the only female at that time in Engineering and Applied Math) one has the skill set to address many important problems.

Although campuses will be teaming with students, both new and experienced ones, come the Fall, during the summer, the faculty are getting prepared as they work on new breakthroughs, present their work at conferences around the globe, rework their course materials, and take the time to reflect.

Soon I will be giving keynote talks in Europe -- at the Computational Management Science in Vienna, Austria and at the Yalta Optimization Conference -- Network Science in Ukraine. As I tell my students, research can really take you places and introduce you to fascinating people!

Working at a university is a great privilege and responsibility and always filled with new challenges, opportunities, and, sometimes, even drama (I will write about the latter topic sometime in the future)!

Network Science in Yalta, Ukraine and Keynote

After the International Conference on Computational Management Science in Vienna, Austria, I will be off to give a keynote talk at the 3rd Yalta Optimization Conference, which will take place in Yalta, Ukraine, at the beginning of August. The theme of this year's Yalta conference is Network Science. Of course, this scientific conference should not be confused with the famous historic Yalta Conference of 1945!

I am looking forward to seeing this very scenic location on the Black Sea and to practicing both my Ukrainian and Russian. Plus, it will be great to reconnect with wonderful colleagues and friends there and to listen to the talks. Special thanks to the organizers: Professors Butenko, Prokopyev, and Shylo, for letting me deliver the keynote talk with title and abstract below.

Title: Fragile Networks: Identifying Vulnerabilities and Synergies in an Uncertain Age

Abstract: The growing number of disasters globally has dramatically demonstrated the dependence of our economies and societies on critical infrastructure networks. At the same time, the deterioration of the infrastructure from transportation and logistical networks to electric power networks due to inadequate maintenance and development as well as to climate change, has resulted in large societal and individual user costs. This talk will focus on recently introduced mathematically rigorous and computer-based tools for the assessment of network efficiency and robustness, along with vulnerability analysis. The analysis is done through the prism of distinct behavioral principles, coupled with the network topologies, the demand for resources, and the resulting flows and induced costs. The concepts will be illustrated in the context of congested transportation networks, supply chains under disruptions, financial networks, and dynamic networks such as the Internet and electric power networks. We will further explore the connections between transportation networks and different network systems and will quantify synergies associated with network integration, ranging from corporate mergers and acquisitions to collaboration among humanitarian organizations.

Computational Management Science in Glorious Vienna

I am very much looking forward to the International Conference on Computational Management Science that will take place in Vienna, Austria later this month. Vienna is a center of scholarship, culture, architecture, music, and intrigue.

The last time that I was in Vienna was back in March 2009 when I spoke on Synergies and Vulnerabilities of Supply Chain Networks in a Global Economy at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration and was hosted by my esteemed and wonderful colleague there, Professor Manfred Fischer.

At the Computational Management Science (CMS) 2010 conference, which will be at the University of Vienna, I will be giving a keynote / plenary talk, entitled, Supply Chain Networks: Challenges and Opportunities from Analysis to Design, and the abstract is below.

Abstract: Supply chain networks provide the backbones for our economies since they involve the production, storage, and distribution of products as varied as vaccines and medicines, food, high tech products, automobiles, and even energy. Many of the supply chains today are global in nature and present challenging aspects for modeling and analysis. In this talk I will discuss different perspectives for supply chain modeling, analysis, and computation based on centralized vs. decentralized decision-making behavior, along with suitable methodological frameworks. I will also highlight applications to mergers and acquisitions and even humanitarian logistics through supply chain network integration. Such timely issues as risk management, demand uncertainty, outsourcing, and disruption management in the context of our recent research on supply chain network design and redesign will also be discussed. Suggestions for new directions and opportunities in healthcare and sustainable supply chain networks will conclude this talk.

I thank the organizers of CMS 2010 for giving me the opportunity to deliver this talk.

World Cup Postcard from Argentina -- 1 Month and 1 Day

On June 11, 2010, the 2010 World Cup began and that was the same day that we mailed a postcard to ourselves from Buenos Aires, Argentina, where I spoke at the ALIO-INFORMS conference.

Remember that today is July 12, 2010, the day after the ending of this World Cup in South Africa. I am pleased to report that the postcard that we sent to ourselves (since we love to track how long deliveries can take) arrived today! It took 1 month and 1 day and, strangely enough, it had a side trip to Mexico. Perhaps it was because Argentina beat Mexico in this World Cup?!

We started getting messages from relatives and friends in the past 10 days or so that our postcards to them from Buenos Aires were trickling in.

I wish that there had been a GPS tracker on this card because I am sure that the journey that it took was fascinating from a transportation point of view.

Above is what we are calling our infamous World Cup postcard. We whited out our address, which was present, so that was not the excuse for this extreme snail mail delivery.

At least it did arrive, finally!