The shocking news of the Germanwings plane (flight 9525) crash today over France in the Alps on a flight from Barcelona to Dusseldorf with 150 lives lost is resonating far and wide.
This airplane disaster feels very close to home to me.
Just last Thursday I was flying back from Berlin where I spoke at the DPG scientific conference and had flown there from Boston Logan the Saturday before via British Airways. On the latter flight I was seated next to a prep school (Pingrey) group which was en route to Barcelona. There was also a school group on the Germanwings flight (Germanwings is owned by Lufthansa) that crashed today. On my flight to Boston via Heathrow on British Airways last Thursday we had extra passengers since the Lufthansa pilots were on strike, which I thought strange.
And last summer my husband and I flew via Germanwings from Berlin to Catania (after bailing out of an Air
Berlin flight due to an 8 hour delay) and also from Thessaloniki to Gothenburg via Dussledorf. I had conferences to speak at in both Sicily and Greece and was spending time as a Visiting Professor at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.
I have been seeing lots of press coverage on Professor Arnie Barnett's research in view of this Gremanwings crash. Professor Barnett of MIT is a colleague from INFORMS and is an aviation security and safety expert. USA Today has an article noting his work entitled: Despite flurry of tragedies, air crashes are rare, We hosted him at the Isenberg School in our UMass Amherst INFORMS Speakers Series a while back.
With the black box recovery I hope that the mystery of the cause of this Airbus plane crash is solved.
Our hearts go out to all those who lost family members and friends in this plane crash.
Showing posts with label Lufthansa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lufthansa. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
The Best Thing About the US is the National Science Foundation (NSF)
In the past 3 weeks I have been on 8 Lufthansa flights -- even the crew on the flight from Munich to Boston on Sunday was impressed. I had spent 3 weeks in Europe, as part of my Visiting Professorship at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, and also as a Guest Professor in Vienna, Austria. Strangely, there are no direct flights to Sweden from Boston and even to get to Vienna from Gothenburg I had to do a Frankfurt or Munich hop!
The flights that I took on Sunday from Gothenburg to Boston via Munich, Germany were all full and, since Sunday I had 18 hours of travel to make it back to Amherst, as a frequent flier, my "secret" is to stretch a lot and to stand on the plane, whenever possible -- I can recite plane configurations in my sleep.
While in flight, and after some really interesting conversations with the Lufthansa flight crew in the back (the service and hospitality were fantastic -- THANK YOU!), a gentleman joined me in the back for some stretching, as well. He actually remarked that it was about time for him to do some yoga exercises.
Being an academic, I can spot interesting people easily and since I travel so much and am one of those who truly enjoys even the journey, and that is primarily because of the people that I meet en route, I struck up a conversation.
He works in countersurveillance and had recently had an audience with Aung San Suu Kyi, the peace activist, in Burma and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and had just starred in a play in Berlin. His brilliance was apparent and in our conversation we also talked about Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the author of The Gulag Archipelago, and the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature.
During our conversation on literature, political activism, technology, computer programming, education, and research -- we exchanged business cards and he was intrigued that I was the Director of the Virtual Center for Supernetworks at UMass Amherst. He immediately asked whether I knew Kevin Fu, a cybersecurity expert, and I said, of course, but that he has left UMass to go to Michigan. He also spoke of Susan Landau, the computer scientist, and we discussed computer science colleagues at the University of Washington.
He reminded me of Aaron Swartz, so I asked him whether he knew him and he responded that Aaron was a friend, so we spoke about Internet activism, MIT and Harvard, and the great loss that Aaron is no longer with us.
Out of the clear blue sky he stated with a smile and glow: "The Best Thing About the US is the National Science Foundation (NSF)!" I exclaimed -- "Wow -- that is so great to hear!" He is now part of a funded project on countersurveillance and I am sure will do great work (and he already has).
As a recipient of several NSF grants, including a large one that I am a Co-PI on, I can honestly say that NSF support has been essential to my confidence-building and productivity (when times get tough you can immerse yourself in research and know that you have the support and that you can bring in more PhD students, which is essential to scholarship and education). NSF grants have enabled me to stretch and cross disciplinary boundaries, to delve deeply into new research areas, to work with colleagues across disciplines, and to publish journal articles and books. Several of my former students who have been funded, in part, on my NSF grants, have achieved tenure and even Full Professorships and, when I travel to conferences, time and time again, am told how successful my former students are. An NSF grant gives you the imprimatur to fully stretch yourself and to do courageous research.
Thank you, NSF, for being gutsy and visionary, and, as my new airplane colleague attested, being the best thing about the US!
And Lufthansa landed in Boston early! I do reget, however, not taking a photo of the snack offered from Gothenburg to Munich that consisted of a triangle of Wiener schnitzel with mashed potatoes seasoned with mustard (very yellow), which I gave to my seat-mate, with whom I had another fascinating conversation about manufacturing in Poland versus Sweden, which I may write about in another post. I had packed up a big bar of Lindt dark chocolate, which I shared, and that pulled me through.
In the meantime, continue to do your best work!
The flights that I took on Sunday from Gothenburg to Boston via Munich, Germany were all full and, since Sunday I had 18 hours of travel to make it back to Amherst, as a frequent flier, my "secret" is to stretch a lot and to stand on the plane, whenever possible -- I can recite plane configurations in my sleep.
While in flight, and after some really interesting conversations with the Lufthansa flight crew in the back (the service and hospitality were fantastic -- THANK YOU!), a gentleman joined me in the back for some stretching, as well. He actually remarked that it was about time for him to do some yoga exercises.
Being an academic, I can spot interesting people easily and since I travel so much and am one of those who truly enjoys even the journey, and that is primarily because of the people that I meet en route, I struck up a conversation.
He works in countersurveillance and had recently had an audience with Aung San Suu Kyi, the peace activist, in Burma and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and had just starred in a play in Berlin. His brilliance was apparent and in our conversation we also talked about Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the author of The Gulag Archipelago, and the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature.
During our conversation on literature, political activism, technology, computer programming, education, and research -- we exchanged business cards and he was intrigued that I was the Director of the Virtual Center for Supernetworks at UMass Amherst. He immediately asked whether I knew Kevin Fu, a cybersecurity expert, and I said, of course, but that he has left UMass to go to Michigan. He also spoke of Susan Landau, the computer scientist, and we discussed computer science colleagues at the University of Washington.
He reminded me of Aaron Swartz, so I asked him whether he knew him and he responded that Aaron was a friend, so we spoke about Internet activism, MIT and Harvard, and the great loss that Aaron is no longer with us.
Out of the clear blue sky he stated with a smile and glow: "The Best Thing About the US is the National Science Foundation (NSF)!" I exclaimed -- "Wow -- that is so great to hear!" He is now part of a funded project on countersurveillance and I am sure will do great work (and he already has).
As a recipient of several NSF grants, including a large one that I am a Co-PI on, I can honestly say that NSF support has been essential to my confidence-building and productivity (when times get tough you can immerse yourself in research and know that you have the support and that you can bring in more PhD students, which is essential to scholarship and education). NSF grants have enabled me to stretch and cross disciplinary boundaries, to delve deeply into new research areas, to work with colleagues across disciplines, and to publish journal articles and books. Several of my former students who have been funded, in part, on my NSF grants, have achieved tenure and even Full Professorships and, when I travel to conferences, time and time again, am told how successful my former students are. An NSF grant gives you the imprimatur to fully stretch yourself and to do courageous research.
Thank you, NSF, for being gutsy and visionary, and, as my new airplane colleague attested, being the best thing about the US!
And Lufthansa landed in Boston early! I do reget, however, not taking a photo of the snack offered from Gothenburg to Munich that consisted of a triangle of Wiener schnitzel with mashed potatoes seasoned with mustard (very yellow), which I gave to my seat-mate, with whom I had another fascinating conversation about manufacturing in Poland versus Sweden, which I may write about in another post. I had packed up a big bar of Lindt dark chocolate, which I shared, and that pulled me through.
In the meantime, continue to do your best work!
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Great Lufthansa Flights and Great to be Back in Sweden
Lufthansa must have been using machine intelligence to figure out seat assignments.
On my flight from Boston Logan to Frankfurt this past Thursday I was seated to a student from the business school at UMass Boston and then across the aisle from me there was a faculty member from the MIT Sloan School of Management. The former was traveling to the University of Heidelberg where she will be studying German and learning about the culture with her ultimate goal of working in international business as a CPA. The MIT instructor, in turn, was traveling to Istanbul, Turkey (his first trip there) for a short workshop.
From the UMass Boston student I learned about her various experiences at universities she had been at (including horror room-mate stories) prior to transferring to UMass Boston. From the faculty member I caught up on what MIT has been doing in terms of entrepreneurship.
And there were several other female students on our flight to Frankfurt who were also going to the program at Heidelberg, including an Isenberg School of Management student from the Management Department.
The Lufthansa staff was fabulous -- danke schon -- and the flight with 58 rows of seats was filled. I enjoyed the Airbus airplane with bathrooms down the stairs -- good way to stretch and get some exercise.
I also met a female postdoc from Portugal who is researching neuroscience at Harvard Medical School who was traveling back to Portugal for a vacation and a family from Nantucket who was going back to White Russia to visit relatives and they were traveling with two very young children.
I had a pleasant wait in the Frankfurt airport, where Lufthansa even provided the latest USA Today and International Herald Tribune for the travelers, and then it was time for a short (under 2 hours) flight to Gothenburg.
Now I am back in my office at the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg, drinking my cafe latte, and enjoying being back in glorious Gothenburg, Sweden.
I have prepared the lecture on supply chains that I will be giving this coming Monday at the Chalmers University of Technology, as part of its Optimization Seminar series. In my talk, I will provide a broad overview of some of the work that we have done on supply chains and then will delve deeply into our latest work on fast fashion and sustainability -- perfect since I am now back in the world of H&M.
On my flight from Boston Logan to Frankfurt this past Thursday I was seated to a student from the business school at UMass Boston and then across the aisle from me there was a faculty member from the MIT Sloan School of Management. The former was traveling to the University of Heidelberg where she will be studying German and learning about the culture with her ultimate goal of working in international business as a CPA. The MIT instructor, in turn, was traveling to Istanbul, Turkey (his first trip there) for a short workshop.
From the UMass Boston student I learned about her various experiences at universities she had been at (including horror room-mate stories) prior to transferring to UMass Boston. From the faculty member I caught up on what MIT has been doing in terms of entrepreneurship.
And there were several other female students on our flight to Frankfurt who were also going to the program at Heidelberg, including an Isenberg School of Management student from the Management Department.
The Lufthansa staff was fabulous -- danke schon -- and the flight with 58 rows of seats was filled. I enjoyed the Airbus airplane with bathrooms down the stairs -- good way to stretch and get some exercise.
I also met a female postdoc from Portugal who is researching neuroscience at Harvard Medical School who was traveling back to Portugal for a vacation and a family from Nantucket who was going back to White Russia to visit relatives and they were traveling with two very young children.
I had a pleasant wait in the Frankfurt airport, where Lufthansa even provided the latest USA Today and International Herald Tribune for the travelers, and then it was time for a short (under 2 hours) flight to Gothenburg.
Now I am back in my office at the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg, drinking my cafe latte, and enjoying being back in glorious Gothenburg, Sweden.
I have prepared the lecture on supply chains that I will be giving this coming Monday at the Chalmers University of Technology, as part of its Optimization Seminar series. In my talk, I will provide a broad overview of some of the work that we have done on supply chains and then will delve deeply into our latest work on fast fashion and sustainability -- perfect since I am now back in the world of H&M.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
A Perfect First Day at the CMS Conference in Vienna
My flight from Logan Airport in Boston to Frankfurt via Lufthansa was wonderful except that there was a dog underneath my seat named Bailey, who is a shitzu, and who whined painfully for hours. Some of us thought that the plane was experiencing mechanical difficulties.
As I wrote back in May on this blog, on my flight back from Honolulu, there was a cat next to me that a serviceman had brought on board.
Bailey's owner said that it was his third trip to Germany and, for some reason, he could not settle down. I managed to converse a bit with my seatmate and read the NYTimes but then decided that with the conference and my speaking engagements in Europe I had better get some sleep. Luckily, a stewardess found me another aisle seat so that I could catch some shuteye. My new seatmate was a postdoc from Germany, who is Italian, and who was returning from a Gordon conference in New Hampshire so we ended up having a delightful conversation about scientific research and even the World Cup and we even managed to get some sleep.
The Lufthansa plane had terrific and very comfortable seats and the bathrooms (first time I had seen this) were in the middle of the plane and a staircase down (lots of legroom there).
After a brief layover at the Frankfurt airport I caught my Austrian Airways flight to Vienna.
Yesterday was the first day of the Computational Management Science conference which is taking place in glorious Vienna, Austria. The weather here is sunny and cool with gentle breezes -- simply perfect and a very welcome break from the heat back in the US.
Yesterday I gave the opening keynote talk on supply chains networks and had a chance to speak at another session that I had organized. In the latter, one of my former doctoral students, Professor Tina Wakolbinger also spoke, and it is always extra special to see former students doing so well. In addition, a group of us, including colleagues from Texas and Florida, went out to lunch together.
Last evening a group of us was invited to Professor Georg Pflug's home in Vienna for a lavish dinner buffet. Professor Pflug is the organizer of this conference. It was the perfect evening with colleagues from around the world conversing and dining in an elegant setting.
It will be hard to leave this magnificent city!
Of course, I already also managed to indulge in some delicious Mozart kugel chocolates.
As I wrote back in May on this blog, on my flight back from Honolulu, there was a cat next to me that a serviceman had brought on board.
Bailey's owner said that it was his third trip to Germany and, for some reason, he could not settle down. I managed to converse a bit with my seatmate and read the NYTimes but then decided that with the conference and my speaking engagements in Europe I had better get some sleep. Luckily, a stewardess found me another aisle seat so that I could catch some shuteye. My new seatmate was a postdoc from Germany, who is Italian, and who was returning from a Gordon conference in New Hampshire so we ended up having a delightful conversation about scientific research and even the World Cup and we even managed to get some sleep.
The Lufthansa plane had terrific and very comfortable seats and the bathrooms (first time I had seen this) were in the middle of the plane and a staircase down (lots of legroom there).
After a brief layover at the Frankfurt airport I caught my Austrian Airways flight to Vienna.
Yesterday was the first day of the Computational Management Science conference which is taking place in glorious Vienna, Austria. The weather here is sunny and cool with gentle breezes -- simply perfect and a very welcome break from the heat back in the US.
Yesterday I gave the opening keynote talk on supply chains networks and had a chance to speak at another session that I had organized. In the latter, one of my former doctoral students, Professor Tina Wakolbinger also spoke, and it is always extra special to see former students doing so well. In addition, a group of us, including colleagues from Texas and Florida, went out to lunch together.
Last evening a group of us was invited to Professor Georg Pflug's home in Vienna for a lavish dinner buffet. Professor Pflug is the organizer of this conference. It was the perfect evening with colleagues from around the world conversing and dining in an elegant setting.
It will be hard to leave this magnificent city!
Of course, I already also managed to indulge in some delicious Mozart kugel chocolates.
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