Teaching at Universities in Different Countries

Soon it will be spring break at UMass Amherst and, although it is still only February, the weather is milder and the days longer and quite pleasant in Massachusetts.

Rather than jetting somewhere warm during spring break for a nice holiday, like some of my students, most certainly, will be doing, I will be in England (and I  hope that the "beast from the east" has left by then and, along with it,  the snow and cold).

Last summer I received an invitation to teach a masterclass in England at Lancaster University and was able to arrange my masterclass, which is on Network Equilibrium, to coincide with my spring break. The masterclass consists of about 8 hours worth of lectures and will be given to Master's and PhD students in Operational (Operations Research) and Statistics. I was invited by Distinguished Professor of Operational Research Dr. Kevin Glazebrook and was honored and delighted that I could accept the invitation. I have been enjoying preparing my lectures and am very much looking forward to meeting students there and also seeing numerous fabulous colleagues in my field. STOR-i is the centre hosting my visit. I will be covering theory as well as numerous exciting applications in my masterclass!

The first time that I taught outside of the United States was back in 1996 when I received a Distinguished Visiting Professorship at KTH (the Royal Institute of Technology) in Stockholm, Sweden. One of the goals of that program was to increase the visibility of female academics. So, with family in tow, off we went to live in Sweden.  I thoroughly enjoyed having offices both in Systems Theory and Optimization and in Regional Planning. To get from one office to the other I hiked through the woods and crossed a river. I sometimes (actually, often) wondered what my daughter was doing in a Swedish daghes (daycare) while I taught a course and she dined on salmon and dilled potatoes and also learned how to climb trees and cliffs at a very young age! The 6 months we spent in Sweden were magical and I enjoyed teaching a class in optimization and networks. We returned to Stockholm, and lived at the Wenner Gren Centre, for extended periods multiple times. When an opportunity presented itself to be a Visiting Professor at the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg (the second largest city in Sweden), I took it and in the last several years have had multiple visits there. I treasure my colleagues around the globe and the richness of the cultural experiences (plus food).

In 2002, I had a dream come true (my mother, who was a WW II refugee, always told me that if I had a chance to go to Innsbruck, Austria, that I should). I was offered a Distinguished Chaired Fulbright at SOWI at the University of Innsbruck, and, again, my family accompanied me since I not only did research (and elementary school children only go to school there for a few hours a day), but also taught a slew of courses.   The first time that the SOWI students hammered on their desks after a lecture of mine with their fists, I was wondering what I had done wrong. This is actually a sign that they enjoyed my lecture very much!

Tina Wakolbinger, who was one of my students there, graduated, worked for a year in Austria,  and then became my doctoral student at the Isenberg School of Management. She received her PhD in 2007, achieved Full Professor status in only 4 years and is now at the Vienna University of Economics and Business in Austria as a Professor of Supply Chain Services and Networks and Head of the Research Institute of Supply Chain Management.  Clearly, a big success story, and also an example of what can happen if you stretch your boundaries and teach in another country.  Tina invited me a few years ago to teach at her university, and I instructed an intense course on Humanitarian Logistics. A student in that course is now one of Tina's doctoral students.

From Sweden to Austria to Sweden and Austria and now soon off to England to teach and to acquire experiences that I share with my students back in the US!

Head of the Research Institute for Supply Chain Management

Head of the Research Institute for Supply Chain Management

Senator John Kerry is a Great Choice for Secretary of State

Today, President Obama nominated our long-serving Massachusetts Senator, John Kerry, as his choice for Secretary of State, to replace Hillary Clinton who will be stepping down. She issued a statement commending this choice.

I remember fondly hearing from Senator Kerry when I received my first Fulbright. He wrote me a letter of congratulations. He did not need to do this but the fact that he noticed, cared, and took the time to do this thoughtful act, despite his very busy schedule, speaks to his value of international exchange programs such as the Fulbright program. The Fulbright program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and is administered by CIES, a division of the Institute of International Education. How appropriate that, if approved, and all should go smoothly, he will be the Secretary of State and will even oversee the Fulbright Program!

Some reflections, with photos,  on my first Fulbright, which was as a Distinguished Chair in Economics at the SOWI Business School at the University of Innsbruck, Austria were published on the Fulbright Scholar Program website.  I had this Fulbright just over a decade ago and also served as a Senior Fulbright Specialist in Business Administration, more recently, in 2008, at the University of Catania in Italy.

International Education Week and Fulbrights

This week we are celebrating International Education Week and our atrium is decorated with flags from around the world. The timing is perfect since tomorrow we will be helping to host a delegation from China that is exploring the establishment of a partnership with our doctoral program at the Isenberg School of Management. Travel and study abroad enriches all the participants and is one of the highlights of education.

One of the best examples of international programs is the Fulbright program, which has been in existence for decades. In 2002, I had the unique opportunity to hold a Distinguished Chaired Fulbright at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, and an essay on my experiences appears on the CIES.org page. I have also captured, through photos, some of the magic of living and working in Austria while on this Fulbright.

My more recent Fulbright experience took place in March, 2008, when I was a Senior Specialist in Business Administration at the University of Catania, Italy. A webpage to capture the workshop and educational experiences was created and is available here.

Tomorrow I will also be meeting with the head of an organization that works in humanitarian logistics and who has done a lot of relief work related to transportation in Africa.

Let us all celebrate diversity!

Financial and Economic Networks, Executive Education at Harvard University and the World Bank, Science Magazine, and a Fulbright in Italy

Some of you may have seen Science magazine's special issue on Complex Systems and Networks, which was published on July 24, 2009. Coincidentally, that was the same day that I was teaching a course on Portfolio Optimization at Harvard University in its Executive Education AMDP program at the Graduate School of Design. In constructing the material for this course I assembled volumes of relevant literature and also made use of the following books that I had co-authored: Financial Networks: Statics and Dynamics and Fragile Networks: Identifying Vulnerabilities and Synergies in an Uncertain World, and the book, Innovations in Financial and Economic Networks, that I had edited. Information on these books, as well as on my Network Economics book can be found here.

In the special issue of Science there is also an article on Economic Networks, in which the authors argue the importance of this theme. However, the special issue has no contributions from the operations research and management science communities who have been principal contributors to the networks literature for over 50 years! Interestingly, last year I was invited by Professor Michael Trick of Carnegie Mellon University to comment on an article published in Operations Research by Professor David Alderson of the Naval Postgraduate School and did so. The article argued for closer collaborations across disciplines in the area of network science. The link to the article along with the commentaries can be found here. Professor Alderson was one of the invited speakers in the Dynamic Networks workshop that I organized with Professor David Parkes of Harvard, under the auspices of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study programs. This workshop brought together physicists, computer scientists, economists, operations researchers, and applied mathematicians to discuss frontier topics in dynamic networks. Last year, I had the distinct honor of being a Fulbright Senior Specialist at the University of Catania in Italy and with Professor Patrizia Daniele organized a Workshop on Complex Networks.

Towards the goal of further disseminating state-of-the-art research on networks in economics and finance I am sharing with you my lectures on Portfolio Optimization and on Network Economics, given, respectively, at Harvard University and at the World Bank.

Given how many important problems there are in the world to solve it makes no sense to be reinventing the wheel. Disciplines need to give credit where credit is due and to work together. Both my Portfolio Optimization course and Network Economics course lectures highlight the richness and depth of network analysis and what it can bring to the formulation, analysis, and solution of critical problems that we are facing today.

Was it Only a Year Ago -- My "Second" Fulbright

Today is March 1, 2009, and it feels that March is coming in as a lion with a lot of snowfall expected in New England!

In my last post I wrote about my first Fulbright, which took place in Innsbruck, Austria, and began in March, 2002. In 2005, I was awarded a Distinguished Chaired Fulbright in Canada but could not accept that and a Science Fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard so I declined the Fulbright in Canada. Wanting to experience another Fulbright adventure, I applied for a Senior Fulbright Specialist Award in Business Administration and was informed last year by the Italian Fulbright Commission that I was granted the award. My "second" Fulbright took place last March at the University of Catania in Italy. Catania is located at the base of the volcano Mt. Etna, which periodically still erupts, and is on the island of Sicily. My host was Professor Patrizia Daniele of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science who is also a Center Associate of the Virtual Center for Supernetworks.

As part of this Fulbright, Professor Daniele and I organized a workshop on "Complex Networks -- Equilibrium and Vulnerability Analysis with Applications," which brought together scientists from different disciplines -- mathematics, physics, computer science, and operations research/management science. It was a terrific event and we were especially pleased that so many female scientists spoke and participated. In addition, I had the wonderful experience of teaching a class at the University of Catania and in interacting with colleagues in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science.

Evenings we would spend promenading down the main avenue, Via Etnea, in Catania which was filled with families walking, shopping, and having treats such as gelato and wonderful Italian pastries. Catania has cobblestone streets, magnificent architecture, shops with beautiful Italian made crafts, and is located on the Mediterranean Sea. Photos that were taken capture, in part, the beauty of Catania and the warmth of its people. The hospitality of Professor Patrizia Daniele and Professor Antonino Maugeri was tremendously appreciated.

An Invitation I Could Not Refuse and My First Fulbright

Recently I received an invitation to give an invited lecture that I simply could not turn down. Professor Manfred Fischer of the Institute for Economic Geography and GIScience at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, which was ranked in the top twenty schools of economics in Europe by the Financial Times, extended the invitation. Professor Fischer is a Regional Science Association International (RSAI) Fellow and a marvelous scholar and gentleman. Given the audience, the location, and the venue, I accepted the invitation and will be speaking there in mid-March. Vienna is one of the most glorious cities on this earth and several of my family members have lived there. Although I had had a Distinguished Chaired Fulbright in Innsbruck, Austria, I had never visited this grand city filled with incredible architecture, museums, parks, history, and music!

During my Fulbright in Innsbruck, Austria, which took place March -July 2002, I taught at the SOWI Business School at the University of Innsbruck. Innsbruck is magical and words cannot describe the magnificence of the mountains, the nature, the Inn River, and the downtown, including the Old Town. Some photos from Innsbruck during this Fulbright capture the magic but we have heard that the house that we lived in (with a view of the 1964 Olympic ski jump) has been torn down. Its address was 94 Schneeburgasse. Of course, before traveling to Vienna, I will stop by Innsbruck to reconnect with those that made my family and me feel so welcome during that Fulbright experience, which, simply put, was heaven on earth.

Transportation and Network Economics

The new semester begins at UMass Amherst this week and students are coming back to our snowy but gorgeous campus! With infrastructure such a major topic in the news lately, and with discussions about transportation improvements (and how to pay for them) taking place from Massachusetts to China, I thought that it would be relevant to share course lectures.

If you want to learn more about multimodal traffic networks, how to set tolls, and how to predict traffic flows on congested urban transportation networks, read more.

Teaching and researching networks can take you to some fantastic places. The Fulbright experience, in particular, is incomparable. Here you can also find lectures that I gave in magical Innsbruck, Austria, while on a 4 month Fulbright as well as talks on Complex Networks given last March in Catania, Italy (the location of the volcano Mt. Etna).