We were delighted to have Dr. Elena Gerstmann, the Executive Director and CEO of INFORMS, visit us at UMass Amherst and speak at the Isenberg School of Management. She reached out to me this past summer and, along with my Department Chair, Professor Senay Solak, we made sure that the visit would happen.
Dr. Gertsmann arrived Thursday afternoon, and had dinner at the Inn at Boltwood with my Operations and Information Management (OIM) colleague, Professor Zihao Qu, and a large group of PhD students from the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter, including last year's Chapter President, my PhD student Samira Samadi. This chapter is a great collaboration between OIM and the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at UMass Amherst.
Friday was a very busy day and I am grateful to our OIM Office Manager, Samantha Whittle, who prepared a very nice schedule for our distinguished guest, which consisted of a Meet and Greet, her wonderful talk, lunch at The Commonwealth Restaurant, an interview with Dr. Gerstmann with the Student Chapter and meetings with senior Isenberg School leadership members: Senior Associate Dean Lisa Pike Masteralexis and Associate Dean of Research & PhD Programs Fousseni Chabi-Yo with an exit interview with Professor Senay Solak.
A big shoutout to all the faculty who joined us for parts of Elena's visit, which included both Isenberg School faculty and colleagues in MIE at UMass Amherst: Professors: Zihao Qu, Shirley Shmerling, Michele Burch, Ana Muriel, Theodore Allen, Carey Baldwin, and Kathy Zilch. A special shoutout to the officers and members of the UMass Amherst Student Chapter of INFORMS, including: Sarvagya Jha, Josh Gladstone, Samira Samadi, Ismael M. Pour, Yongdong Chen, Yukti Kathuria, Solmaz Abbaspour, G. Busra Karkili, Yucheng Yao, Kelvin Ekun, Parisa Lotfibagha, Sindhoora Prakash, and Amir Khosheghbal for assisting with the logistics and also for conducting an interview with Dr. Elena Gerstmann.
INFORMS is a professional organization of over 12,000 members.
We will let everyone know once the interview is posted on the Chapter's youtube channel.
We thank Dr. Gertsmann for her time and all the excellent discussions and warm memories!
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