What a Great Regional Science Conference in Miami

The regional science conference in Miami was a great success.

I especially enjoyed the sessions organized in honor of Professor Walter Isard, the founder of regional science, who passed away several months ago.

The venue at the Hyatt Regency hotel was perfect as well as the style of the conference, which included a discussant for each paper presentation.

I enjoyed speaking about our work on medical nuclear supply chains as well as on the dynamics of predator-prey ecological networks as nature's supply chains (and their relationship to classical spatial price equilibrium problems as well as to multitiered supply chain network equilibrium problems).

It was wonderful to see so many of my wonderful regional science colleagues from around the world at this conference -- there were many hugs and catching-up conversations.

Many thanks to the organizers for such an intellectual feast.

As for Miami, the warmth of the climate as well as the people, plus the gorgeous sights (the hotel is in downtown Miami but there are parks along the water a monorail and amazing skyscrapers) will be hard to leave.

Why do I live in Massachusetts -- perhaps I forgot to include weather as an amenity in my utility function?

My previous trip to Miami was a decade ago -- my first flight and conference after 9/11 and it was to the INFORMS conference.

I am now heading to INFORMS Charlotte, which should be fabulous, as well.

I will be posting many photos after I return to Amherst.

Cornell has Posted the Videos of Professor Isard's Memorial and Symposium

On April 29, 2011, Cornell University was the site for the Memorial Service and Symposium in honor of Professor Walter Isard, who passed away last year at age 91. Professor Isard was the founder of regional science and peace science and a great friend and mentor to many.

I was to speak at the Symposium but because of bad weather in the US my flights on USAIR were cancelled.

Nevertheless, my presentation was delivered by my former student and colleague from SUNY Oswego, Professor June Dong. The above photos were kindly provided by Professor Dong.

Cornell, through the efforts of Professor Kieran Donaghy, who helped to organize the special day, has now posted the videos of both the morning memorial service and the afternoon symposium.

I spent the better part of last Saturday viewing the videos and was touched by the reflections of colleagues from around the world, by the presentations of several of his grown children (he and his wife had had 6 and then adopted 2 more). When on holidays with his children, who would cart along a trailer with a piano so that he could provide music

The music provided at the end of the memorial by Professors Donaghy, T. John Kim of the University of Illinois Urbana, and Jean Paelinck, who is now a Distinguished Visiting Professor at George Mason University, without any rehearsals, I might add, was touching.

I learned a lot from the speakers at the afternoon symposium and thank Professor June Dong for delivering my presentation! Luckily, she lives only about an hour away from Cornell and drove there.

Some of the many highlights:

Professor Geoff Hewings of the University of Illinois Urbana noted three things that he had learned from Walter Isard:

(1). Make your dreams a reality -- Just Do It (even if your institutions create roadblocks).

(2). Do high quality research -- Stand Out.

(3). Take care of the next generation.

Professor David E. Boyce, who is both an INFORMS Fellow and a Regional Science Association International (RSAI) Fellow, read a letter from Professor Martin Beckmann, in the morning. In Boyce's afternoon remarks on travels with Isard he noted how much Isard, when going to conferences, also liked to make time for visiting zoos (this made me smile) and when asked as to why, he said that the Nobel prize winner, Leontieff, also liked zoos. Karen Polenske of MIT, who also spoke, was a former student of Leontieff's at Harvard and reflected on how Isard, while at MIT, used to rollerblade to teach his classes (not a myth but the truth). I even learned of a book of Isard's from Professor Adam Rose of USC on ecological economic analysis, which I promptly ordered through Amazon.

Professor Isard, through his indomitable spirit, intellect, and organizational skills, built a community, which spans the globe, and he left so many friends. When I gave a seminar at Cornell, and was hosted by Professor Donaghy, on April 1, 2009, he showed up to my talk.

Also, I learned my lesson -- never take a USAIR flight that requires a connection in Philly. At least USAIR reimbursed me for the cancelled flights.

Cornell University,Regional Science, and the Flights Back

I would like to thank Dr. Kieran Donaghy, the Chair of the Department of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University, for being such a wonderful host during my visit to Cornell. I was really thrilled to have Professor Walter Isard, who will be 90 years old in a few days, and who is the founder of the field of Regional Science, attend my talk yesterday. Plus, Professor Sid Saltzman also came to my talk. Professor Saltzman is in his late 80s, and is the father of Matt Saltzman, who is well-known in the Operations Research community and is a Professor at Clemson University. Having Professor Tim Mount of Agricultural Economics in the audience also brought such wonderful memories of collaborations with Cornell folks on spatial price equilibrium problems, ad valorem taxes, and applications to the dairy industry.

We had dinner last night in Ithaca and Dr. June Dong and Professor Mark Turnquist joined Professor Kieran and me at "Willow," a restaurant that alone is worth the travel to Ithaca, New York! Nothing like a great conversation about transportation, regional science, and the state-of-our universities over a delicious meal! The stories that we shared were terrific and, of course, we had to mention my dissertation advisor at Brown University, Dr. Stella Dafermos, who died almost exactly 19 years ago. Her first academic appointment after receiving her PhD was at Cornell. Dr. Mark Eisner, who also attended my talk, came up to me afterwards and told me how he, George Nemhauser, and Stella had worked together when she was at Cornell.

What would a speaking engagement be without another travel/transportation adventure?! Today I woke up at 5:30AM (I do recommend the Statler hotel at Cornell -- great service and it is quiet) and caught the 6:00AM shuttle to the tiny Ithaca airport only to find out that the second leg of my USAIR flight from Philly to Bradley was cancelled. I was rebooked on a flight 2 hours later. Security at the Ithaca Airport took about 1 hour to process 10 people but the pain was mild since I saw Professor Linda Nozick of the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cornell (a colleague of Turnquist's) ahead of me in line. We talked through the 1 hour delay in Ithaca and got front row seats on the flight to Philly. Another case of having an ideal "seatmate" to fly with. Our discussions ranged from infrastructure management and systems engineering, to teaching, to research, to having kids! Nozick was flying to DC to give a presentation at the Department of Energy and I was trying to make it back to UMass Amherst for an exit interview with a Dean's candidate (I did not make it).