An Academic Departmental Divorce

You may be expecting me to be writing about math models, algorithms, and love since tomorrow is Valentine's Day but, given Professor Laura McLay's post on such a topic, I am writing on another one -- that of the breakup of my department into two separate departments.

This divorce did not need a judge or court or lawyers, but it needed the Faculty Senate and, on January 31, 2013, the separation of my department at the Isenberg School of Management was made official according to this document.  So, now we have not a single department housing what I always liked to think of as the real techies in our business school but two separate departments: the Department of Finance and the Department of Operations and Information Management. The day to day rhythms should not change much and we still will have the same wonderful secretary.

So, now it will be time for new business cards, new stationery, new updates to the cv's, and various websites, as well as new signs around the school, etc.

I am very pleased that our undergraduates will now have separate majors upon graduation with their degrees (having a major in Finance and Operations Management was confusing to some employers). The doctoral track remains Management Science for "our" department.


Nevertheless, I will miss having stronger ties with the Finance faculty but the friendships remain as well as the collaborations, whether through grants, research, and/or even serving on students' doctoral dissertation committees. And I will continue to work on Financial Networks, which is the theme even of a special issue of the journal, Computational Management Science, that I am guest editing.

This department was originally called General Business and Finance. Then it was changed to Finance and Operations Management, which evolved to Finance and Operations and Information Management (the latter only for a very short period) and now to two separate departments.I served on the search committee with some truly terrific colleagues for our new Dean, who was hired over 3 years ago, Dr. Mark Fuller, who is in the MIS area

Then, with colleagues from Computer Science, and Electrical and Computer Engineering, as well as a few other, I wrote a proposal for new faculty in the area of cybersecurity and our department got a new faculty slot, and we ended up also getting a spousal hire, as well, so the non-Finance part grew.  It made sense to then add "Information Management."

Amazingly, the proposal that we wrote for a cybersecurity cluster hire is still online.

Change happens in academia, albeit slowly, but change is good.

We are now in the midst of interviewing faculty candidates so these are exciting times.

Happy Valentine's Day!

You Don't Need an Ivy League Degree to be President of an Ivy League University

The college early decisions and early actions were mailed out just a few weeks ago and there are happy high school seniors and also disappointed ones (some very).

So many students, parents, maybe even grandparents, siblings, and other relatives think that the be all and end all is to get into and matriculate at an Ivy League university. This comes from families who may have had several generations go to an Ivy League university as well as families whose parents are immigrants and/or the high school seniors may be immigrants as well and to other high achieving and ambitious hardworking students.

I thought that I would put this  into perspective, realizing that, for some, who have worked so hard academically and on their extracurricular activities, not to mention studying for the SATs, writing those college application essays, going on interviews, etc.,  that being deferred, or rejected, is emotionally and, perhaps, even, physically, painful.

Here are the data and the facts: you do not need an undergrad degree from an Ivy League university to become President of one. In fact, you may not even need even a graduate degree from an Ivy League university to become President of one.

The four female Presidents of Ivy League universities:

Dr. Shirley Tilghman, the President of Princeton University, who has served since 2001 (and will be stepping down at the end of this academic year with no announcement yet as to her replacement)  was born in Canada (as was I ) and she has an undergrad degree from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada and a PhD from Temple University of Philadelphia.

Dr. Christina Paxson, the new President of Brown University (my alma mater 4 times over),  received her undergrad degree from Swarthmore in Pennsylvania (and she even jokes about how quickly her rejection from Harvard University came when she applied there as an undergraduate). Her PhD is from Columbia University.

Dr. Drew Gilpin Faust, who I have written about because I was a Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Fellow at Harvard University, when she was the Dean of the Institute, and, the year after, became President of Harvard, received her undergrad degree from Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania (there is something special about those eastern Pennsylvania liberal arts colleges, you must admit). Her PhD is from the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Amy Guttmann, the President of the University of Pennsylvania, whom I have also written about, received her undergrad degree from Radcliffe College (now part of Harvard), a Master's from the London School of Economics,  and her PhD from Harvard University.

Now, information on the male Presidents of the 4 other Ivy League universities.

Lee Bollinger, the President of Columbia University in NYC, has an undergrad degree from the University of Oregon and a law degree from Columbia.

Dr. David Skorton, the President of Cornell University, has an undergrad degree from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, as well as an MD degree from there. Note -- no Ivy League degrees and still heading Cornell for many years.

Dr. Philip Hanlon, the incoming President of Dartmouth College,  graduated from Dartmouth but received his PhD from CalTech. His dissertation advisor was Dr. Olga Taussky-Todd and I used one of her theorems in my doctoral dissertation.

Dr. Peter Salovey, the incoming President of Yale University, has a pedigree very similar to that of the outgoing President of Yale, Dr. Richard Levin: Stanford undergrad and Yale PhD. Levin also has an undergrad degree from Oxford University and Salovey has several master's degrees from Yale.

So there you go -- you don't need an Ivy league undergrad degree to become President of an Ivy League University! In fact, two out of the eight sitting Ivy League Presidents don't have a single Ivy League degree!

Leadership is earned and there are many outstanding colleges and universities in the United States, both public and private, where you can obtain an elite education. It is entirely up to you to take advantage of the great courses offered and other opportunities. Do remember and recognize the great mentors, faculty, staff, and family members that support our students.

Statewide Travel Ban Lifted and More Nemo Snowstorm Photos

We got plowed out in Amherst, Massachusetts so I went for a walk in our neighborhood and saw more neighbors outside shoveling with children playing than I have seen out in a long time. The sun has come out and Governor Deval Patrick has lifted the travel ban in Massachusetts as of 4PM today.   
This was a 24 hour travel ban.


The UMass Amherst men's basketball game is still on (moved to 7PM as I had written in my earlier post) but it will not be televised on ESPN2 but will be streamed on ESPN3 instead.

Relatives in eastern MA and Rhode Island are still without power and it will be frigid tonight.

I took the photos below in our neighborhood a short while ago.

Blizzard Nemo Shuts Down Mail Service to 6 New England States and More

We are now seeing what Blizzard Nemo has wrought:  havoc, with power out to hundreds of thousands,  including the Plymouth nuclear power plant, which was shut down, travel on roads in Massachusetts still banned by the governor, except for emergency vehicles and news services, businesses and schools closed (from UMass to MIT and more).

And, mail is suspended for all 6 New England states today.

Special thanks to all the emergency crews and the crews who are trying to get our roads to be passable again as well as to the electric power crews who are working on restoring electricity.

Amazingly, the UMass Amherst men's basketball game is still to take place but the time has been moved from 2PM to 7PM. The game is being nationally televised by ESPN2 but you might have to snowshoe there (I am very tempted to hike to support the players and their great coach, Derek Kellogg,  who lives close to us).

From the UMass Amherst homepage on Saturday, February 9, 2013:

ALERT: The University of Massachusetts Amherst campus is closed until 12 noon today, Saturday, Feb. 9 (and closed yesterday at noon).

BUS SERVICE: There will be no bus service today, Saturday, Feb. 9.

UHS: Walk-in clinic is open for usual weekend hours of 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

TRAVEL BAN: Due to the snowstorm, Massachusetts is currently under a state of emergency and use of all non-essential vehicles is banned. As a result, anyone with tickets for the men's basketball game vs. Saint Joseph's in the Mullins Center on Saturday cannot drive to the game. If the driving ban is lifted before the 7 p.m. game, conditions may still remain hazardous and snow-removal efforts will be slowed by substantial traffic. Tickets for this game may be exchanged for a future contest.


The winds are still howling and we took the photos below of the periphery of our home this morning.

The photo below was taken of our backyard on Thursday, just as the dire forecasts for nemo were reaching a crescendo. What a difference the blizzard has made. It has brought most economic and other activities to a standstill. And with over 5,000 flights cancelled since Thursday the disruptions are major.

 

Preparing for the Blizzard While Preparing My Humanitarian Logistics Course for Vienna

The news and associated warnings about the blizzard that is supposed to wallop New England, beginning tomorrow morning and lasting through Saturday is being described as "epic" and "historic." We just received a phone message from the Amherst Town Manager, who is also a neighbor of ours, to prepare accordingly  and even our Massachusetts Governor has issued warnings. The weather reports are noting that parts of Massachusetts and Connecticut may receive over 2 feet of snow with the Boston area forecasted to be especially heavily hit. Winds up to 60 miles an hour are also being predicted.

I have been receiving messages of concern from collaborators outside of the Northeast -- thank you!

There are also comparisons (we will see) being made to the blizzard of 1978, with the 35th anniversary falling yesterday.

I have been working on my lectures for an intensive short course that I will be giving at the Vienna University of Economics and Business in Austria  in mid-March. The topic of the course is Humanitarian Logistics and Healthcare. I taught a full semester course on the topic in the Spring of 2012 at the Isenberg School of Management. When I was invited to be a Guest Professor in Vienna (I am on sabbatical this year and am  spending a lot of time at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden) I was asked to suggest a few course titles and the above one was the one selected.

The audience will be international, I have been told, but since the setting is Europe, I have been updating my lecture notes and slides. A lot has happened this past year, Superstorm Sandy, to start, and it is always interesting to put a fresh spin on course lectures for different audiences.

Coincidentally, late next week,  the AAAS meeting in Boston is taking place, and at the symposium that I organized entitled, Dynamics of Disasters, the audience will get to hear some fabulous researchers and speakers: Dr. David McLaughlin, Dr. Laura McLay, Dr. Panos Pardalos with Dr. Tina Wakolbinger and Dr. Jose Holquin-Veras as discussants.  More information is on the AAAS website.  Let's hope that there won't be any travel travails!

Stay safe, everyone, and pray that the power stays on and that there is no major damage or flooding! Also, check on your neighbors -- WebMD has some useful tips.

Many universities and colleges have already announced that they will be closed tomorrow -- the same holds for many school systems.

National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Newly Elected 2013 Members

Every year, around this time, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) announces its newly elected members.
 
The below post was written prior to the 10AM announcement today and for the press release with names of newly elected 2013 NAE members, just released,  click here:

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The official announcement is to take place at 10AM today but I like to do research and have uncanny intuition and caught that the NAE website in its Members Directory has already posted, by name, the 2013 newly elected members.

The link to the 2013 list is here and the names are in alphabetical order.

If there is a problem with the link just click on the 2013 year and you will see the list as I did.

Congratulations to all those on the list! There are quite a few representatives from industry and a few female names on the list.

How many names do you recognize? Do you know any personally?

Last year, I wrote a post on knowing several elected to the NAE in 2012.

My Number 17 PhD Student to Successfully Defend Dissertation with Photos of the Celebration

In my previous post, I wrote about how to construct a great model with insights from Dr. Hal Varian, the Chief Economist of Google, who had also spent many years at UC Berkeley.

I noted that the doctoral dissertation defense of my 17th PhD student would soon be taking place. Indeed, I had chaired 16 doctoral dissertations to that point and am very proud of my former students!

So, for all of those out there who are dying of suspense as to the outcome -- the news is great!

Amir H. Masoumi successfully defensed his doctoral dissertation on Friday, February 1, 2013 at the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst. His concentration was Management Science and the title of his dissertation: Supply Chain Management of Perishable Products with Applications to Healthcare. In his research,  he focused on centralized and decentralized supply chains with the former consisting of blood supply chains and the latter -- oligopolistic competition with brand differentiation of pharmaceutical products. His work is also related to medical nuclear supply chains and to food supply chains.

Coincidentally, after his defense, he told me that his lucky number has always been 17!

His dissertation committee consisted of Professor Hari Balasubramian of the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at UMass Amherst, Professor Senay Solak of the Isenberg School, and Professor June Dong of the School of Business of SUNY Oswego.

The dissertation committee members are in the above photo with Amir H. Masoumi. (Professor June Dong teleconferenced in and we had to practice some disruption management since the communications went down for a few minutes -- Always have a backup plan!)

What really impressed me was not only how Amir thanked his fellow associates at the Virtual Center for Supernetworks that I direct but also how he acknowledged his colleagues at the award-winning UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter, many of which showed up on a freezing Friday afternoon to listen to his presentation and waited outside the room until the committee finished asking him their questions.

Later, that evening, we celebrated his successful defense at Moti, a Persian restaurant in downtown Amherst. The food was delicious and the conversations had us roaring with laughter.

 

Thanks to all those who have supported a student in his journey to achieve his dream of becoming Dr. Amir H. Masoumi!

And, yes, his mother, back in his birthplace, had been praying for him all day and, when he texted her at 1:30AM her time with the good news, she was very relieved and very happy!