Photos from the Miami Regional Science Conference

From November 10-19, 2011, my co-authors and I presented papers at three conferences -- from the Regional Science conference in Miami to the INFORMS Conference in Charlotte, to the most recent one, which was a physics conference at UMass Amherst and required no flying! I also spoke on two panels at the INFORMS Charlotte conference.

The conferences were fabulous (and you can get a sense of the Charlotte conference from the blogposts on the conference website that I also contributed to).

Many of our conference presentations on topics ranging from medical nuclear supply chains, to predator-prey ecological networks as nature's supply chains, to blood banking systems, and even fashion supply chains can be found on the Virtual Center for Supernetworks website.

However, since sometimes pictures are worth thousands of words, above I have posted photos from the Miami Regional Science conference.

Congrats to the organizers of all of these conferences -- they were a great success!

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.

Conference Chaining -- From Regional Science to INFORMS

In transportation we talk about "trip chaining," where a driver combines several errands in a car trip.

This week I will be "conference chaining," since I have back to back conferences but at least they are both on the East Coast.

I will be flying on Wednesday to Miami, Florida where I will be speaking at the 58th Annual North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association International.

Then, next Sunday, I will be flying from Miami to Charlotte, NC to take part in the Annual INFORMS Conference.

At the regional science conference, I will be speaking on "Medical Nuclear Supply Chain Design: A Tractable Network Model and Computational Approach," as well as on "Dynamics and Equilibria of Ecological Predator-Prey Networks as Nature's Supply Chains." The latter paper I will be delivering in a special session honoring the memory of Professor Walter Isard, the founder of regional science. It has now been published in Transportation Research E.

This year I chaired the Regional Science Association International Fellow Selection Committee and am looking forward to seeing this honor bestowed on Professor Ake Andersson, who will be traveling from Sweden to receive the fellow plaque.