Congratulations to the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter on its Magna Cum Laude Award!

The recent INFORMS Annual Meeting, which took place in San Francisco, November 1-4, 2026 was outstanding.

One of the highlights was that the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter, on November 2, at a lovely ceremony, was recognized for its activities in the 2025-2026 year with the Magna Cum Laude Award. I have had the honor and pleasure of serving as this chapter's Faculty Advisor since its inception in 2004.

Many of our Chapter officers from the past year and this year: Samira Samadi, Josh Gladstone, Semih Boz, Solmaz Abbaspour, Yukti Kathuria, Sindhoora Prakash, and Yongdong Chen, and chapter members, including Kelvin Ekun, traveled 3,000 miles to this conference and were able to join us at the reception and ceremony, which included remarks by INFORMS Executive Director Elena Gerstmann, PhD, FASAE, CAE, INFORMS President-Elect Wedad Elmaghraby, and Les Servi, INFORMS Vice President for Chapters and Forums, with keynote speaker Zihan Zhang. 

The Riccio College of Engineering at UMass Amherst posted this nice article on the Chapter's Award: https://www.umass.edu/engineering/news/informs-magna-cum-laude-award

This student chapter is a wonderful collaboration between the Isenberg School of Management and the Riccio College of Engineering.

Congratulations to all the INFORMS Student Chapters that were recognized last evening and keep up the great work!

The Sustainability Symposium at UC Berkeley was Outstanding!

On October 31, 2026, I took part in the Symposium on Environmental and Social Sustainability in Supply Chains at the University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business.  I congratulate and thank Professors Sytske Wijnsma, Candace Yano, Luyi Yang, and Owen Wu for a very engaging, timely event. It was a pleasure to be invited to speak on: "Trade Policy, Labor, and Climate Disruptions in Global Supply Chain Networks," and to be on a panel on OM Sustainability Research, along with  Dean Vishal Gaur, and Professor Jan Fransoo, with expert moderation by Owen Wu. 

Thanks to Professor Sadan Kulturel-Konak for taking some photos and also to Yongdong Chen, who is a PhD student in Operations Management at the Isenberg School of Management, UMass Amherst. It was great to reconnect with colleagues and to meet new ones. The venue was lovely. 

Our Latest Research on Food Security, Supply Chains, and International Trade is Published!

I am delighted that the paper, "Multicommodity Trade Network Equilibrium with Mixed Demand and Food Security," co-authored with Dana Hassani, one of my Isenberg School PhD students in Operations Management, has now been published in the journal Networks. This journal has only about a 5% acceptance rate. We are grateful to the reviewers and to the Editors that handled our paper for their constructive comments and suggestions.

More information on our paper can be found on the journal's website: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/net.70081 This is Dana's fifth publication as a PhD student with four other papers of his, co-authored with me and with colleagues at the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) - Professor Oleh Nivievskyi and Dr. Pavlo Martyshev - appearing in such journals as: European Journal of Operational Research, Transportation Science, and the Journal of Global Optimization, as well as in an edited Dynamics of Disasters volume. Prepints of these papers can be found on the Supernetwork Center website: https://supernet.isenberg.umass.edu/dart.html.

The Isenberg School's Leaders of Impact Event at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts was Outstanding

We got back  late last night from a truly spectacular event - the 2026 Leaders of Impact event hosted by the Isenberg School of Management.

The event took place at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and this year's honorees were Earl Stafford Jr., CEO of Aperio Global, and Dr. Stavros Siokos, the Co-Founder and Partner of Astarte Capital Partners. Stavros was my former PhD student and co-author with me of the Financial Networks book as well as other publications.

The event, emceed by Isenberg Dean Anne P. Massey, celebrated the 2026 honorees and brought alums, special guests, family members, top administrators, including the University of Massachusetts Amherst Chancellor Javier Reyes, faculty, staff, and students together in the stunning venue to recognize these amazing Leaders of Impact and role models.

Below I have posted several photos from the event.

It was wonderful that three of my present PhD students: Samira Samadi, Dana Hassani, and Ismael Pour could attend as well as many undergraduates from the Isenberg School.

The food was delicious and the conversations very inspiring and enjoyable. It was great to also have colleagues from my Operations and Information Management Department there - my Department Chair - Professor Senay Solak and Dr. Michele Burch, Associate Chair, and Dr. Oscar Lopez.

It was terrific to have Senior Associate Dean Lisa Masteralexis with us and our PhD Director, Professor Fousseni Chabi-Yo, and our Undergraduate Dean, Dr. Nicole Melton, plus the Chair of the Marketing Department - Professor Liz Miller, and many others!

Even several Isenberg Professor Emeriti came - Professors Tom Schneeweis, Hossein Kazemi, and Tony Butterfield.

Grateful to these Leaders of Impact, who, through their creativity, incredible work ethic, energy, thoughtfulness, knowledge and resilience, continue to have a great positive impact on our world.

Wonderful Visit and Talk by Dr. Elena Gerstmann, Executive Director and CEO of INFORMS!

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!

Dr. Stavros Siokos to Receive Isenberg School's Leader of Impact Award in Boston

When I heard the news, I was thrilled! My former PhD student, Dr. Stavros Siokos, who is the Co-Founder of Astarte Capital Partners, will be recognized next week at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts with the Leader of Impact Award from the Isenberg School of Management. Lorraine Martinelle wrote this lovely article on Stavros's outstanding contributions: https://www.isenberg.umass.edu/news/leader-impact-stavros-siokos-98phd-do-well-doing-good and I was honored to also be interviewed.

The collage below was prepared as a tribute to Stavros over the years. I am grateful for the memories of times in Amherst, London, Athens, NYC, and, soon, in Boston.

Stavros has been so generous with his time, wisdom, and many kindnesses, and his impactful work for our beautiful planet.

Congratulations, Dr. Stavros Siokos, and thank you for your many wonderful contributions and investments for planet earth and its people, both now and, in the future.

Congratulations to My "Newest" PhD Student

Getting a PhD requires achieving multiple milestones. Achieving each of them should be celebrated.

This past Friday, my "newest" PhD student, Sarvagya Jha, successfully passed his core exam, so congratulations are in order. Sarvagya is a second year PhD student in Operations Management at the Isenberg School of Management.

The core exam takes place at the Isenberg School after the completion of the first year of PhD courses by the student and involves both the writing of a paper as well as its presentation in an oral-type of  "defense."

Sarvagya's Core Exam Committee consisted of Professor Hari Balasubramanian of the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department at UMass Amherst and Professor Zihao Qu of my Operations and Information Management Department, with me as Chair of the Committee.

Sarvagya presented his (46 page) paper on September 18 in an oral talk and responded to questions.

Afterwards, a student worker, who just happens to also work as a photographer, took the nice photo below.

Thanks to Sarvagya's committee members and to the nice photographer!

Congratulations to Sarvagya on attaining this milestone in his PhD journey!

The Mathematics for the Real World Conference in Odense - Kyiv was Outstanding and Inspiring

I am back from a whirlwind trip. Last week, I took part in my 4th conference of this summer and it was extra special - the Mathematics for the Real World Conference in Odense and Kyiv organized by the International Centre for Mathematics (ICMU) in Ukraine (the host in Kyiv) and the Center for Quantum Mathematics at the University of Southern Denmark (the host in Odense). I flew from Boston Logan to Copenhagen and then took a shuttle to Odense (and also back).

The event had outstanding speakers and even students from Ukraine as participants, now studying at universities in other countries. 

Last Wednesday was what I call a "perfect day" at the conference. It began with the Fields Medalist Maryna Viazovska delivering the plenary talk on "Formal and Informal Mathematics of Sphere Packing," followed by my plenary on "Networks, Supply Chains, and Variational Inequalities," with terrific Q&A. Additional great talks were by Mykola Maksymenko on "Quantum Computations in Practice" and Oleksii Kuchaiev on "Artifical Intelligence in Practice." The panel discussion on Maths-Driven Innovations with Anna Lysyanskaya, Maryna Viazovska, Jørgen Ellegaard Andersen, and me in Odense, and Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, streaming in, plus colleagues in Kyiv taking part, with Khrystyna Gnatenko moderating and with an introduction by Maria Vlasenko was so exciting that it lasted past 6PM.

I am grateful to the organizers: Khrystyna Gnatenko, Alexander Marynych, Volodymyr Minin, and Anna Lysyanskaya, and to Jørgen Ellegaard Andersen, and to Oleksandra Golovkova plus Maria Vlasenko and Maryna Viazovska for their hard work on making this unique conference a big success. Congratulations also to the International Centre for Mathematics in Ukraine - ICMU, which was founded only in 2022, a very tough year for Ukraine and the world, and to the Centre for Quantum Mathematics (QM) on their accomplishments.

And a big shoutout to all the wonderful students from Ukraine who joined us  plus an appreciation to Li Quan, who, at the lunch on Wednesday, when I mentioned chocolate, produced some that he had recently bought in Munich and shared it with all of us at our table. I am sure that new collaborations will come out of this great event.

Information on the conference can be found on the ICMU website: https://icmu.ua/en/events/applied-maths-2026

Those of you who have been following the news, would know about the multiday continuing bombing of Kyiv by Russia. The last two days of the conference our colleagues in Kyiv spent in a bomb shelter but they insisted that the conference continue. Their fortitude, dedication, and courage inspire me.

Thank you, also, to UMass Amherst for this news release: https://www.umass.edu/news/article/anna-nagurney-delivers-keynote-joint-odense-kyiv-conference-mathematics-real-world

I have posted my presentation on the Supernetwork Center website: https://supernet.isenberg.umass.edu/visuals/ICMULecture-Nagurney-2026%201.pdf

Thanks to all my students (present and past) and to all of my co-authors!

Furious that Google Scholar Removed my Most Highly Cited Work - My Book: Network Economics: A Variational Inequality Approach

I have no idea what is up with Google Scholar lately.

It is infuriating that, this past week, Google Scholar removed my most highly cited publication - my book: Network Economics: A Variational Inequality Approach for my Google Scholar page.

Below is a snapshot of the book from its first edition in 1993.

As one can see from the snapshot below, which was taken a while back, my book, which was published in 1993 and then the second edition in 1999, followed by the e-book in 2013 (the latter two by Springer and the first edition by Kluwer Academic Publishers), my book had almost 3,000 citations.

There is no form one can use to complain but I did, based on info I found online, "add it manually" and it appears towards the bottom of my Google Scholar page with 0 citations.

Below I include a link to my book (second edition in 1999) on the Springer website:

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4757-3005-0

Frankly, this feels like an assault against a female scholar.

If this is something AI is up to then good luck to all of us.

***********************AN UPDATE************************************************

Today, almost a week after I caught that Google Scholar had removed my most highly cited publication, my book above, it looks like Google Scholar has "brought back" my book, with almost 2,500 citations: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ecFsBp0AAAAJ&hl=en

I had manually enterred the book information and a link to Springer on my Google Scholar page about a week ago, after researching online what one could possibly do (not much, it seems). I also posted my dissatisfaction on social media and wrote the blogpost above.

I am relieved that my book has returned to Google Scholar, along with its citations. This book I worked very hard on and I am proud of it. No idea why it had been removed!

The IFORS Conference in Vienna, Austria Was Amazing

It is hard to believe that, this summer, I spent 3 continuous weeks in Europe, and spoke at 3 conferences. I already blogged about giving a keynote at the Game Theory Conference in Naples, Italy and about the EURO Conference in Linz, Austria. I also wrote about the IFORS initiative of GLOW on this blog and the various associated events at the conference in Vienna.

The IFORS Vienna Conference attracted over 2,200 delegates from 70 countries! This is truly amazing and so impressive.

The first full day was filled with wonderful highlights including the brilliant plenary by former INFORMS President Radhika Kulkarni to a standing room only audience and with an overflow room needed. Her topic of "Smarter Decisions with AI and OR Collaboration: Opportunities and Challenges," led to many continuing discussions throughout the day.

It was great to see the Secretary of IFORS, Gavin Blackett, and Springer Nature Editors, including Christian Rauscher. I was thrilled to see my book, "Labor and Supply Chain Networks," on display and was touched that Erny Rahayu Wijayanti wanted to be photographed with me.

And, of course, every IFORS Conference needs an International Transactions in Operational Research (ITOR) Editorial Board meeting led by its great Editor-in-Chief Celso Ribeiro.

I  am grateful for the opportunity to have presented in the invited IFORS Vienna session: Moments in the History of OR & IFORS organized by Gerhard-Wilhelm Weber with the outstanding M. Grazia Speranza as session chair. I very much enjoyed doing the research behind my presentation on "Highlighting Some Historical Women in OR," with focus on Ailsa Land, Alison Harcourt, Marguerite Frank, Stella Dafermos, and Judith Liebman and highlighting what more can be done, how far we have come, and the great initiative of GLOW - Global Leadership of Women in Operational Research. It is not often that one gives a talk and sees in the audience multiple people that one has mentioned in it, in addition to Gerhard-Wilhelm Weber and M. Grazia Speranza! Thanks to all the speakers in the session and to Janny Leung, Paula Carroll, and Annunziata Esposito Amideo for coming and for their leadership! It was extra special to also have Dmytro Matsypura, my former Isenberg School of Management, UMass Amherst PhD student, and very successful professor at the University of Sydney,  come to our session and all the way from Australia! And Janny Leung carried, amazingly, many GLOW backpacks in neon colors, which I will joyously carry.

It was fabulous to see Mary Magrogan of INFORMS, who has worked there for 45 years, being recognized as a newly elected IFORS Fellow and to have the late Judith Liebman be inducted into the IFORS Hall of Fame, with family members present.

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.