2014 Isenberg Business Leadership Awards Announced with Supernetwork Center Alumna as a Recipient!

Last year the Inaugural Isenberg Business Leadership Awards were given out in Boston at a special banquet and the recipients were: Ben Cherington '97 M.S., the high-profile general manager of the Boston Red Sox,  and J.P. Morgan's Alex Ambroz '05, who  received Isenberg's Young Alumni Award.

This year, on June 18, 2014, we will be again back in Boston at the Colonnade Hotel to honor this year's Business Leadership Award recipients and they can be found on the announcement below.

The recipients are David Fubini, BBA, '76, Director of McKinsey & Company, Inc., and Christina Calvaneso, '03 BBA.

Christina graduated summa cum laude from UMass Amherst and worked as an Undergraduate Center Associate at the Supernetwork Center that I founded. I chaired her honor's thesis and nominated her for the 2014 Business Leadership Award. She also received an independent nomination from Bonnie Dowd of Development.  Since this is only the second time that these awards are being given this is a very special honor and great that it is going to one of our very own Operations Management Majors!

I last saw Christina at the Women in Business event in February at the Isenberg School, which I wrote about on this blog, and I included a photo of Christina and me.   

Christina started her professional career at GE and has also worked for Deloitte and Rent a Runway. She is now Eyeview's Senior Vice President of Finance & Business Operations, based in NYC.

This is not the first award that Christina will be receiving. Back in 2003,  I nominated her for the then newly created Leaders of the 21st Century Awards, which were given to 11 graduating seniors at UMass Amherst at the graduation ceremonies, and Christina was one of the recipients!

Great New Concentrations in Our Operations & Information Management Major Including Supply Chain Management at the Isenberg School

We heard the news at our departmental meeting this past Friday at the Isenberg School of Management. Our proposal to have 3 concentrations in our Operations & Information Management major has been approved!

Students who are majoring in Operations & Information Management (the name of my new department) can now select from 3 concentrations: Integrated Operations & Information Management, Supply Chain Management, and Information Systems. These concentrations are even relevant to our May 2014 graduates, provided that they fulfill the requirements.

The official document can be found online.

Having these distinct concentrations provides better academic preparation for career paths and job opportunities.

I teach two of the courses in the new Supply Chain Management track - my Logistics and Transportation class in the Fall and my Humanitarian Logistics and Healthcare class in the Spring, which I am now teaching and have also been writing about in this blog because we have been hosting amazing guest speakers. The students have been writing about the lessons learned and their reflections.

Below is the full list of courses in our Supply Chain Management concentration:

 It's very exciting to see advances in our curricula that benefit both students and faculty, who love what they teach since they also do research in these areas!

Our Legislators' Vision Good for Healthcare and National Security

The below blogpost was written with Professor Ladimer S. Nagurney, Professor of Electrical, Computer and Biomedical Engineering, University of Hartford, CT.

Several years ago, we became interested in the Supply Chain of the Medical Nuclear Isotope Molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) that decays into Technetium-99m (Tc-99m), which is used for countless medical tests, especially for cardiac symptoms and cancer diagnostics. At that time, no US reactor was generating Mo-99. As a result, this critical radioisotope that is used in over 50,000 procedures per day in the US with over 1000 procedures per year at Cooley Dickinson Hospital (our local hospital in Northampton, MA) had to be imported from reactors in Canada, Western Europe, and the former Eastern Bloc countries. In addition to the potential security problems caused by reliance on foreign sources, most of the isotope was generated in reactors using Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) fuel, which could, if not properly secured, be diverted to nuclear weapons.

Concern about the security of the supply of this radioisotope from medical professionals, scientists, and nuclear security experts led the House of Representatives in the 111^th Congress to pass the American Medical Isotope Production Act, sponsored by Representative (now Senator) Ed Markey (D-MA) and co-sponsored by Representative James McGovern (D-MA), whose district, after the 2010 census, now includes Amherst and Northampton.

Just over two years later, the results of these efforts are closer to being realized. Their legislative initiatives were fulfilled with the passage of Public Law 112-239 in January 2013, which includes Subtitle F —American Medical Isotopes Production as part of the Department of Energy National Security Programs.

In September 2013, NorthStar Medical Technologies, of Madison, Wisconsin, a manufacturer and distributor of domestically-produced radioisotopes for the nuclear medicine industry, was able to raise $13.5 million from private investors to begin production of Mo-99 at the Missouri University Research Reactor. According to a recent article in Physics Today, production will begin, following FDA approval, in mid 2014 and, by late 2015, Northstar should be able to produce 3000 six-day curies of Mo-99 per week, approximately half of the US demand for this critical radioisotope.

In November 2013, NorthStar was awarded a $21.8 million cooperative agreement that included $10.9 millionfrom the Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Nuclear SecurityAdministration (NNSA) as part of its Global Threat ReductionInitiative. Currently, a large portion of Mo-99 is produced in reactors using Highly Enriched Uranium, HEU. The Global Threat Reduction Initiative aims to accelerate the development of a reliable, domestic supply of Mo-99 while reducing the use of highly enriched uranium (HEU) in civilian applications worldwide. NorthStar plans to develop non-uranium-based production of Mo-99 via neutron capture.

This funding will reduce potential supply shortages, address national security concerns associated with the use of HEU for civilian applications and reliance on foreign sources, and simplify the logistical complexities of the shipping and disposal of a highly radioactive isotope with long life byproducts. We discussed these issues in our book, Networks Against Time: Supply Chain Analytics for Perishable Products, co-authored with then UMass Isenberg School of Management doctoral students Min Yu and Amir Masoumi, and published in 2013.

As we look forward to the production of Mo-99 in Missouri and Northstar's new technology, we see the efforts of many scientists, engineers, medical professionals, public policy makers, and our outstanding elected officials bearing fruit (or Mo-99/TC99m, as it be). 

Our OpED of a few years ago, emphasized the severity of this issue.

Very glad to see such great progress made, thanks to our legislators in Massachusetts!

Terrific Insights on Teaching from Our UMass Amherst INFORMS PhD Students

Today we had a very special event at the Isenberg School of Management, that was organized by the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter.

It was a panel on teaching.

The panelists were 4 of our doctoral students in Management Science at the Isenberg School of Management who have taught anywhere from one semester to over four semesters (the latter by choice), and I did not include courses that some of our doctoral students may have taught in their home countries

Attendance at this event was great with even doctoral students coming not only from the Isenberg School but from several departments in the College of Engineering from across campus.

The panelists were: Heng Chen, Tulay Varol, Ameera Ibrahim, and Farbod Farhadi, who is defending his doctoral dissertation next week and who received the Isenberg's 2013 Outstanding Teaching Award. He has accepted a very nice tenure-track faculty position offer in a beautiful location.

Below are some photos from the event today.

My doctoral student, Shivani Shukla, who is serving as the President of this Student Chapter this year, organized the panel and did the introductions.

The advice offered and experiences exchanged were fascinating as was the discussion that followed.

The pizza that was provided was yummy and it got consumed quickly after the panelists spoke and the Q&A!

 

What impressed me most was the devotion and dedication to teaching exhibited by all the panelists and they have been teaching a required Operations & Information Management class that is now taken by all students at the Isenberg School.

They shared experiences from nervousness and how to conquer or at least  reduce such feelings by coming to class early and greeting students as they come in, to having a bottle of water to take a refreshment break, realizing that you are the leader and that you know the material well.

They also related some wonderful personal stories about students that, at first, they thought that they were not reaching but these students actually (as they found out later) very much appreciated their instruction but may have been dealing with late work nights, early class times, and a multiplicity of other issues.

The panelists told the audience how they engage our undergraduates through class exercises, always bring real world examples to illustrate the theory and concepts, relate to the undergraduates as to their interests and try to "customize" the material is best as possible.

Farbod, our award-winning instructor,  on the blackboard (more of a brown board), told the audience that for every lecture (and this he noted is also very useful advice for giving seminars and conference presentations), know your objectives, identify the strategies for covering the objectives of the presentation, and practice, practice, practice!

They discussed the importance of handouts of the lectures (something I have always done) so that the audience is listening to the instructor and not just busy trying to write everything down.

Lucky will be the next generation of students who will have our doctoral students as professors after they receive their PhDs and lucky are our undergraduates who have also learned so much from such dedicated teachers.

Below are  some group photos of both the officers present and many members of the audience, who then joined the officers

 

As the Faculty Advisor of this UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter, I could not have been prouder than I was today of this amazing group of doctoral students.

UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter Presents Panel on Teaching

This semester I have been very busy teaching my course on Humanitarian Logistics and Healthcare and a Management Science seminar on Variational Inequalities, Networks, and Game Theory. Both of these courses are interdisciplinary with students from the Isenberg School of Management, the College of Engineering, the School of Public Health, and the Computer Science Department.

In a recent exchange with the President and CEO of the America Red Cross, Ms. Gail McGovern (we were communicating about the great guest lecture of Mr. Rick Lee in my course), she said many things that resonated with me but the below was especially beautiful:

Having come straight from teaching MBAs to the Red Cross, I know firsthand that yours is such a noble profession.  I still keep in touch with many of my students, and I'm proud of  every one of their accomplishments.  It's truly the gift that keeps on giving.

How very  true!

And, this Friday, our great UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter will be hosting a special panel on teaching in which our very own PhD students in Management Science will be sharing their experiences with a lot of exciting Q&A and discussions I am sure.

Refreshments are at 11:00AM with the panel and discussion from 11:30-12:30 in Isenberg Room 128.

Please join us if you can.

The students  prepared the poster below. In this day and age, we need to all also be graphic artists.

 Some very valuable teaching also takes place outside of the classroom!

Ukraine on the Brink of Disaster and Why We Wrote to President Obama and Our Congressmen

Just over  year ago I took part in the Dynamics of Disasters AAAS Symposium in Boston that I had organized and which featured several of our superstars in the profession.

Who would have thought that, in a year, not only did we have the Boston Marathon bombing, but now we are witnessing at terrifying speed the arrival of Russian military troops in Crimea, Ukraine, the site of the Network Science conference, at which I was an invited speaker a few years ago. I even blogged about my great taxi driver, Igor, and the lack of security at the Simferopol airport, one of the sites of what I can only call an invasion of sovereign Ukraine, whose people have suffered over generations. Over the past several months they were demonstrating in Kiev and beyond when Yanukhovich refused to bring the country closer to the West and, specifically,  to the European Union.

In the height of irony or, should I say, perspicacity, the Boston Strong colors look like the Ukrainian flag, with brilliant blue on top, and yellow on the bottom, which I photographed and posted here.

So what is an academic to do when the freedom of  a country is at stake, its sovereignty, and the will of its people, and when international laws are outrightly violated?

Honestly, I was reminded of the movie, which I saw in a drivein one summer, as a child: The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming! and which I have written about.

As I have shared with my readers, my first language is Ukrainian, since I immigrated to the U.S., having been born in Canada. I do have a degree in Russian Language and Literature from Brown University (and 3 more in Applied Math, because I love Operations Research).

I have many Russian friends and I love the language, its literature, the ballet, art, and music and we share similar cuisines. I have been to St. Petersburg - magical!

I wrote about my heritage recently and we have written to President Obama as well as to our Congressmen (including Senators Ed  Markey and  Elizabeth Warren).

President Obama has started to speak out and our former great Senator from Massachusetts, John Kerry, who is now the Secretary of State is doing so as well.   Kerry is expected to arrive in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine,  soon.

I speak Russian - does this give Putin the right to invade the U.S.?

Even the Swedes, in one of my favorite cities on the planet, Gothenburg, where I will be very soon, are expected to support a Ukrainian demonstration for freedom.

I thank all the outstanding journalists who are covering the news from Ukraine. I have tried to personally thank them as well.  Special thanks to The Washington Post and to the BBC and CNN for expert coverage and numerous OpEd pieces in support of Ukraine and freedom-loving people everwhere.

And, would you believe, I was invited to speak recently at a conference in Moscow at the beginning of April, and I would have accepted this great invitation, but I am committed to speaking in Boston at the INFORMS Analytics Conference.

My husband wore the tie below to teach today with the Ukrainian flag and tryzub emblems for solidarity with Ukraine.

Congratulations to President Hanno!

Isn't it wonderful when great things happen to really good people?!

This blogpost is to celebrate the selection of Dr. Dennis Hanno, former Associate Dean of the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst, and an Isenberg PhD '90, who also served in various top administrative posts at Babson College, as the newly selected President of Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts!

One of my favorite photos, which I have in my collection in my home office in Amherst,  is the one below.

 

It was taken in our beautiful Massachusetts State House in Boston on April 11, 2007. We were there to celebrate the selection of our former Dean of the Isenberg School, the one and only Dr. Tom O'Brien, who was being recognized, with several others, with an annual Distinguished Alumni Award from the UMass Alumni Association. I am in the above photo along with Tom O'Brien, who has his arm around Dennis Hanno.

I had nominated Tom O'Brien for this award, which he received (I also nominated Dr. Tony Butterfield, who got the award a few years later).

When Hanno was our Undergrad Dean, one could never say no to him - whether it was to participate in "Pizza with a Professor" or any other activity or event. His energy, charisma, love of students we miss even today. He gave so much of himself - never missing one of our INFORMS Student Chapter parties and coming even to the dedication of our  Supernetwork Laboratory for Computation and Visualization, which was founded in the Fall of 2003 with support from Dean Tom O'Brien and then Associate Dean Dr. Jane Miller (who, would you believe, is back to being an Associate Dean again -- she is terrific)

Plus, Dr. Dennis Hanno was a neighbor of mine in Amherst and his pool parties were great! We all missed him and his wonderful family when they left our area.

Wheaton has posted some great videos introducing its new President.

Wheaton has produced some great leaders, including Ms. Shelley Borror Jackson, the Head of the fabulous Bement School, where my daughter went to elementary school. Several of her classmates from Bement are now at Wheaton. and, before too long, should be receiving their college diplomas from our great former colleague, President Dennis Hanno.