Looking Forward to Giving a Plenary Talk at the Mathematics for the Real World Conference Taking Place in Odense/Denmark and Kyiv, Ukraine

I received the invitation last December and quickly accepted it.

I am thrilled and honored to have been selected to deliver a plenary talk at the "Mathematics for the Real World" conference happening next month simultaneously in Odense, Denmark and Kyiv, Ukraine. 

Many thanks to the organizers: Khrystyna Gnatenko, Alexander Marynych, Volodymyr Minin, and Anna Lysyanskaya, and to the International Centre for Mathematics in Ukraine - ICMU, its Executive Director Masha Vlasenko and the ICMU Scientific Director Maryna Viazovska, and the Centre for Quantum Mathematics (QM) at Syddansk Universitet - University of Southern Denmark for spearheading this exciting conference. 

I'm enjoying preparing my plenary presentation: "Networks, Supply Chains, and Variational Inequalities." 

Maryna Viazovska, the 2nd female Fields Medalist (and it is great that the 3rd female recipient of this prestigious math award, Hong Wang, was announced yesterday), will deliver the plenary talk: "Formal and Informal Mathematics of Sphere Packing." 

I'm also looking forward to being a panelist on the panel: Maths-Driven Innovations, along with Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, Maryna Viazovska, Oleksii Kuchaiev, Mykola Maksymenko, and Tymofiy Mylovanov. 

Additional information about this 5-day conference, including the invited speakers, and full program, can be found here: https://icmu.ua/en/events/applied-maths-2026

Congratulations and Thanks to Professor M. Grazia Speranza on the Publication of Her Book, "Glowing Women: Women in Operations Research!"

This week I am in Vienna, Austria, taking part in my third conference in Europe, in as many weeks.

The conference taking place now in Vienna is the IFORS Conference, which takes place every three years.

The IFORS Conference is extra special because of the inauguration of the initiative known as GLOW.

Plus, congratulations and thanks to Professor M. Grazia Speranza are well-deserved on the publication of the English (expanded) version of her book, "GLOWING WOMEN: WOMEN IN OPERATIONS RESEARCH," which was published just in time for the IFORS Vienna Conference and its extraordinary GLOW - Global Leadership of Women in Operational Research events. Grazia is a former President of IFORS - The International Federation of Operational Research Societies, an INFORMS Fellow, and a recipient of the EURO Gold Medal, The book recognizes and celebrates the journeys of women from multiple countries, interwoven with Grazia's experiences as a scholar, leader, mother, and wife, and offers thoughtful wisdom and guidance. Through beautifully rendered interviews with (in alphabetical order): Shoshana (Shoshi) Anily, Cynthia Barnhart, Paula Carroll, Marielle Christiansen, Rosiane de Freitas-Rodrigues, Elise Del Rosario, Ola Jabali, Kathy Kotiadis, Martine Labbé, Janny Leung, Anna Nagurney (I am so honored to have been included), Dolores Romero Morales, Sunity Shrestha, Rina Schneur, and Karen Smilowitz, the book provides us with inspiration and a vision for a more inclusive future. The book was published by Armando Curcio Editore. 

More information can be found on the publisher's website: https://lnkd.in/dPviXqUn

Below are photos, the first of which was taken at the ITOR Editorial Board Meeting, run by its outstanding Editor-in-Chief, Professor Celso Ribeiro.

Outstanding EUROPT Conference in Linz, Austria

I am writing this blogpost from Vienna, Austria, where I will soon be registering for the IFORS Conference.

This summer, as is my tradition, I enjoy speaking at conferences, and especially those in Europe.

The travel began on June 26, 2026, when I flew to Naples via Amsterdam to take part in the SING 21 Game Theory Conference, where I delivered the opening keynote on the following Monday morning. The conference was a joy, despite the heat, and I blogged about it: http://annanagurney.blogspot.com/2026/07/i-enjoyed-giving-keynote-at-game-theory.html

Then, last week, I spoke at the EUROPT Conference in Linz, Austria. Linz is the third biggest city in Austria, and it is quite industrial. It was my first time there. Below is a photo of the view from our hotel, which overlooked a nice courtyard.

The EUROPT Conference took place at the Johannes Kepler University, which has a beautiful, green campus, complete with a pond, that reminded me a bit of the UMass Amherst pond.

Many thanks to the organizers of the EUROPT 2026 Conference in Linz, Austria. It was an excellent conference, with great scientific presentations and discussions. Information on the conference can be found here: https://www.jku.at/en/institute-of-business-analytics-and-technology-transformation/conference-europt-2026/. It was wonderful to see Professors: Steven Gabriel of the US, Mauro Passacantando of Italy, Tamás Terlaky of the US, Gerhard-Wilhelm Weber of Poland, Bissan Ghaddar of Canada, Miguel Lejeune of the US, Oleg Prokopyev (now of Switzerland), Immanuel Bomze of Austria, and many others and to make new friends from Georgia (the country), Sweden, Brazil, Canada, and Hong Kong. The link to the slidedeck of my presentation on Ad Valorem Tariffs in Global Supply Chain Networks and Impacts on Labor, based on a recently co-authored published paper with my Isenberg School of Management, UMass Amherst PhD student Samira Samadi:  https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01605682.2025.2592758 is here: https://supernet.isenberg.umass.edu/visuals/EUROPT-2026.pdf

The 4 hour conference banquet in a beer hall in an indoor courtyard with a heavenly dessert of warm chocolate cake, cherries, and sorbet, we will all remember!

And, at the Linz train station yesterday, we saw Professor Tamas Terlaky, who was also heading to the IFORS Conference - https://www.ifors2026.at/home/

I Enjoyed Giving a Keynote at the Game Theory Conference in Naples, Italy

Last week the game theory SING21 Conference took place at the University of Naples Federico II in Naples, Italy. I was deeply honored to give the opening keynote talk on the first day of the conference. The title of my talk was: "Game Theory, Supply Chains, Labor, and Tariffs: Insights from Variational Inequalities." It was very warm in Naples but the hospitality was even warmer. Many thanks to Professor Annamaria Barbagallo for inviting me, with gratitude also to all the local organizers. It was a delight to see Professor Suresh Sethi of UT Dallas,  whose talk I very much enjoyed, and also Professors Frieda Granot and Daniel Granot from the University of British Columbia as well as Professor Yigal Gerchak from Telaviv University. There were delegates from numerous countries at this game theory conference, in addition to the US and Canada and European countries, including: Thailand, Japan, South Korea, HK, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Israel. The slidedeck of my keynote presentation can be downloaded from the Supernetwork Center website: https://supernet.isenberg.umass.edu/visuals/SING-Naples-Nagurney-2026.pdf

I also very much enjoyed the keynote talks by Professors Francis Bloch and Hans Peters and many other presentations. The full program is available on the conference website: https://sites.google.com/view/sing-21

The conference banquet on the Mediterranean with a view of Mt. Vesuvius was fabulous with multiple courses and a delicious chocolate almond cake for dessert. Below are some photos. Professor Annamaria Barbagallo presented me with a lovely gift of a plaque of Mt. Vesuvius!

I am grateful to all those who devote so much time and energy to organizing outstanding scientific conferences in locations that are truly special. Thank you! 

My PhD Students Had a Great Year So We Celebrated

One of the great pleasures of being at a research university is working with PhD students and also celebrating their accomplishments. Yesterday, we celebrated some of the accomplishments of my Isenberg School of Management Operations Management PhD students over this past year with a delicious lunch at The Commonwealth Restaurant at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Highlights of an excellent academic year have included:

• Dana Hassani receiving the 2026 Isenberg School Outstanding Doctoral Student Teacher Award;
• Ismael Pour successfully teaching a full course, for the first time, and publishing the co-authored paper, "Integrated crop and cargo war risk insurance: application to Ukraine," co-authored with Professor Borys Kormych of Ukraine, and me, in the International Transactions in Operational Research: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/itor.70038
• Samira Samadi publishing the paper, "Fresh produce spatial price equilibrium on general networks: Capturing commodity quality deterioration through endogenous transportation time delay functions with capacities," with Professor Deniz Besik and me in the European Journal of Operational Research: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0377221726003759 and also the paper with me, "Ad valorem tariffs in global supply chain networks and impacts on labor," in the Journal of the Operational Research Society: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01605682.2025.2592758. In addition, Samira successfully taught a full course for the first time plus she served as the President of the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter!

These PhD students were also very active in presenting their research at conferences of the professional societies: INFORMS, POMS, and DSI. And, Sarvagya Jha had a terrific first year as a PhD student and recently submitted his first paper to a journal. We shared the five exquisite desserts in the photo below.

Wishing all PhD students and their faculty a fabulous and productive summer with great, impactful research.

Super Excited to be Presenting at International Conferences this Summer

Conferences are outstanding venues at which to exchange latest research results and ideas, to do networking, and to reconnect with colleagues from around the globe. And, when the conferences are located in beautiful locations, the experiences become even more special and worthwhile.

This summer will be a very busy one. I will soon be presenting 4 talks at 3 different conferences in 2 different countries.

My first talk is the opening keynote talk at the Game Theory Sing21 Conference in Naples, Italy. I am very grateful to Professor Annamaria Barbagallo for the invitation. The title of my keynote is: "Game Theory, Supply Chains, Labor, and Tariffs: Insights from Variational Inequalities."

The program for the conference is now available online: https://sites.google.com/view/sing-21/programme_1/scientific-programme

I will then travel to Linz, Austria to speak at the EUROPT Conference: https://www.jku.at/en/institute-of-business-analytics-and-technology-transformation/conference-europt-2026/ At that conference, I will present a paper that was co-authored with my Isenberg School PhD student, Samira Samadi, which was recently published in the Journal of the Operational Research Society (JORS). The paper, entitled, "Ad Valorem Tariffs in Global Supply Chain Networks and Impacts on Labor," can be accessed from the journal website: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01605682.2025.2592758

The IFORS Conferences, which take place only every three years are some of my favorites! IFORS is the umbrella organization for national Operations Research Societies, including INFORMS. And, since the 2026 conference will take place in Vienna, it is one not to be missed. I love Austria and had a Fulbright at SOWI in Innsbruck, Austria. My family and I very much enjoyed living in Austria.

It will be an easy journey from Linz to Vienna.

Working on the two presentations for IFORS was very enjoyable. I would like to take the opportunity to thank Professor Gerhard-Wilhelm Weber for inviting me to speak in the stream: Moments in the History (and Future) of OR. Preparing my presentation, "Highlighting Some Historical Women in OR," took me on a very nostalgic journey since I was blessed to have known some of the truly remarkable female OR pioneers. And my other presentation at this conference is on a paper co-authored with two females: Samira Samadi and Professor Deniz Besik (who was my former PhD student at the Isenberg School): "Fresh Produce Spatial Price Equilibrium on General Networks: Capturing Commodity Quality Deterioration Through Endogenous Transportation Time Delay Functions with Capacities," which was recently published in the European Journal of Operational Research:  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0377221726003759. Of course, in the former presentation, I will highlight the new initiative of  IFORS: GLOW - Global Leadership of Women in Operational Research! 

More information on the IFORS conference can be found on its website: https://www.ifors2026.at/home/

Safe travels, everyone!

Honored to Have Reached Over 25,000 Citations on Google Scholar

I was my PhD Dissertation Advisor's  (Stella Dafermos's) first PhD student at Brown University. She was a trailblazer and left an incredible scholarly legacy although she passed away at the age of 49.

Somehow, with effort, luck, passion, and serendipity, I have managed to build a wonderful collaboration network with students (past and present) as well as researchers around the globe. For all my collaborators, I am deeply grateful.

And, as a female scholar, I think it is meaningful to have reached the milestone of over 25,000 citations to my work on Google Scholar. The full list of my publications, as well as my collaborators over the years,  can be found on my Google Scholar page: 

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ecFsBp0AAAAJ&hl=e

It is interesting that my two most highly cited publications are the first two books that I wrote, one with a former PhD student of mine, now Professor at SUNY Oswego, Dr. Ding Zhang. And, my most highly cited journal paper, published in Transportation Science, is a translation from German to English of the famous Braess (1968) paradox paper. That paper was co-authored with Professor Dietrich Braess and my former PhD student, now Professor Tina Wakolbinger of the Vienna University of Economics and Business. And, in 2002,  along with Professor Ding Zhang, and his wife (also a former PhD student of mine),  SUNY Oswego Professor June Dong, we published the paper, "A supply chain network equilibrium model," in Transportation Research E, which is my 4th most highly cited work.

Many thanks to all the researchers and scholars who cite our work!

Doing research (and having it make some impact) is the greatest reward but it is nice also to have the work acknowledged, read, and cited.