Our Fragile Networks on Display in San Diego

Our book, Fragile Networks: Identifying Vulnerabilities and Synergies in an Uncertain World, was on display at our publisher's booth at the INFORMS San Diego conference. The editors and marketing folks at our publisher, John Wiley & Sons, have told my co-author, Dr. Patrick Qiang, and me, that the book is selling very well! We are delighted that many libraries have already acquired the book and it has also been doing very well in individual sales.

We thank all of the funding agencies and foundations as well as organizations, institutions, and colleagues and collaborators who made the research behind this book and the writing of it possible! We also thank our families for their support!

More information about the Fragile Networks book can be found here.

Research4life Initiative, International Transactions in Operational Research, and 15th PhD student to be defending

Today I received an email message from Dr. Celso Carneiro Ribeiro of Brazil, who is the Editor of the journal, International Transactions in Operational Research (ITOR), that this journal will be added to the list of journals included in the Research4Life Initiative, which provides low-cost access for developing nations to journal content. Wiley-Blackwell, the publisher of ITOR (and our Fragile Networks book, as well), is committed to the Research4Life initiative. In particular, Wiley-Blackwell is a member of the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers and ITOR, with its overarching theme of Operations Research, is applicable to all three areas covered by the initiative, that is, health, agriculture, and the environment. I urge you to read up on the Research4Life initiative and note that the testimonials are very touching. Research4Life is a partnership seeking to help out in achieving the United Nation's Millennium Development goals.

I am very honored to be a member of the Editorial Board of ITOR and the paper, co-authored with Trisha Woolley and Patrick Qiang, entitled, "Multiproduct Supply Chain Horizontal Network Integration: Models, Theory, and Computational Results," has now been published online by this journal. Coincidently, Patrick Qiang was my 14th PhD student to complete his dissertation (in May 2009) and Trisha Woolley will be defending her doctoral dissertation, entitled, Sustainable Supply Chains: Multicriteria Decision-Making and Policy Analysis for the Environment, next month. She will be my 15th PhD student, quite the milestone! Trisha Woolley begins next week her tenure-track Assistant Professorship at Texas Wesleyan University in its School of Management.

It is terrific to have students who are carrying out research on sustainable supply chains and policy interventions ranging from carbon taxes to tradable pollution permit systems (also known as cap and trade systems). Some of our recent research publications and studies can be found on the Virtual Center for Supernetworks website.

My former doctoral students who have conducted research on transportation, supply chains, and environmental concerns have now assumed positions in such universities as the University of Sydney in Australia, York University in Canada, the University of Connecticut, DePaul University in Chicago, and two different Penn State campuses. One of my former doctoral students, Dr. Padma Ramanujam, whose dissertation received the Transportation Science dissertation prize, is with SAS in North Carolina. Needless to say, I am so very proud of all those students, whose doctoral dissertations I have had the privilege to chair!

The Fragile Networks book is published

We are delighted to announce that the new book, Fragile Networks: Identifying Vulnerabilities and Synergies in an Uncertain World, has arrived. In the above photo we are holding the first of two copies that we, as authors, received. It's always a very exciting moment to see the book that has been worked on for a long, intensive period of time. The feeling is almost like holding a newborn child in one's arms. The official release date, according to the publisher, John Wiley & Sons, was June 2009, and the book is now out, right on schedule!

The book is a culmination of several years of research and provides a unified treatment of the vulnerabilities that exist in real-world network systems, along with tools to identify synergies for mergers and acquisitions. The book consists of three parts: Part I focuses on the network fundamentals, efficiency measurement, and vulnerability analysis. Part II discusses applications ranging from transportation networks and supply chains to electric power generation and distribution networks, the Internet, and even financial networks. It also examines the efficiency changes and the associated cost increments after network components are eliminated or partially damaged. Part III provides models and analyses for assessing mergers and acquisitions, network integration, and associated synergies.

According to the publisher, Fragile Networks, with its numerous network examples and real-world applications, is an excellent book for courses in network science, transportation science, operations management, and financial networks. It is also a valuable reference for researchers and practitioners in the areas of applied mathematics, computer science, operations research, management science, finance and economics, as well as industrial, systems, and civil engineering. Additional information about the book is available here.

My co-author, Dr. Patrick Qiang, just happened to be wearing his Isenberg School of Management t-shirt when our copies arrived on June 17, 2009. Colleagues have commented from as far away as Italy that the cover of the Fragile Networks book looks "stunning."

We thank the editors and the publication assistants at Wiley for all of their help during the writing and production of this book! Needless to say, given the deterioration in our critical infrastructure and the opportunities that now are being made possible because of President Obama's stimulus package, the book can assist in wise and appropriate investment decision-making for the nation's (and the world's) network systems.