Our Blood Supply Chain Paper is Now Published and Reflections on Dr. Bernadine P. Healy -- RIP

I was struck by the recent death of Dr. Bernadine P. Healy, who not only was the first female head of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) but also was the second female (after Elizabeth Dole) to head the American Red Cross and did so during 9/11.

She recently passed away at the age of 67 and had an amazing career as a researcher (over 200 papers), educator, and top administrator both in academe, including Johns Hopkins University, as well as the above-noted major organizations.

She was also a wife and mother to two daughters.

The New York Times ran an obituary on her, as did many other leading newspapers and, despite some controversial decisions, she clearly brought attention to women's health care and the importance of teamwork in organizations.

Our first blood supply chain paper, in which discussions with the Red Cross were essential and are acknowledged, entitled,Supply Chain Network Operations Management of a Blood Banking System with Cost and Risk Minimization, has now been published by the journal Computational Management Science. With it, we honor her memory.

Dr. Frank Collins, the present Director of the NIH, in his moving tribute to Dr. Healy, acknowledged her words, which she made during an NIH exhibit on pioneering women doctors:

“All of us, I believe, in our hearts are humanitarian. And how wonderful to be in a career that in almost any dimension of it—whether you're the doctor at the bedside, or the scientist in the laboratory, or the public health doc tracking down the latest epidemic—that you are doing something that is pure in its fundamental purpose, which is helping another human being.”

Thank you, Dr. Healy, for your gutsy leadership and R.I.P.

We hope that, through research and education, we can also make a difference.

The Fragile Networks Tutorial at NIH

Today, Dr. Patrick Qiang and I gave our tutorial on Fragile Networks: Identifying Vulnerabilities and Synergies in an Uncertain World, which is also the title of our book published by John Wiley & Sons. The tutorial took place at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which has a lovely campus in Bethesda, Maryland. The trees are blooming here and the tutorial was one of four delivered today. These tutorials precede the 2010 International Conference on Social Computing, Behavioral Modeling & Prediction (SBP2010), which begins tomorrow and at which about 500 delegates are expected. You may find our tutorial, which consisted of three distinct modules here.

Dr. Qiang and I had a wonderful time at our tutorial and the audience consisted of academics, consultants, and government employees, as well as researchers, and represented disciplines from computer science and applied mathematics to computational economics, medicine, and physics. The questions were great and the conversations truly stimulating. We met some marvelous people and saw some old friends. I am enjoying the collegial atmosphere and discussions tremendously. After our tutorial we had a wonderful dinner with a brilliant researcher who is trained as a physicist and who is now working in computer science and is from Hungary.

We are very much looking forward to hearing talks at the conference and Dr. Qiang and I will be giving a paper on Wednesday on knowledge collaboration networks. This paper is published in the conference proceedings volume, which we picked up today.

We thank the organizers of SBP 2010 for the opportunity to present the tutorial and for organizing such an exciting composition of speakers and presentations!

Fragile Networks Tutorial at NIH -- Good Timing!

Next Monday, Dr. Patrick Qiang and I will be giving a tutorial on Fragile Networks: Identifying Vulnerabilities and Synergies in an Uncertain World at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD. This tutorial will take place immediately preceding the 2010 International Conference on Social Computing, Behavioral Modeling, and Prediction at NIH. Our tutorial is one of 4 invited ones.

Dr. Qiang and I have been hard at work preparing our tutorial which is organized into three different modules:

Module I - Network Fundamentals, Efficiency Measurement, and Vulnerability Analysis explores the theoretical and practical foundations for a new network efficiency measure in order to assess the importance of network components in various network systems. Methodologies for distinct decision-making behaviors are outlined, along with the tools for qualitative analysis, the algorithms for the computation of solutions, and a thorough discussion of the unified network efficient measure and network robustness with the unified measure.

Module II - Applications and Extensions examines the efficiency changes and the associated cost increments after network components are eliminated or partially damaged. A discussion of the recently established connections between transportation networks and different critical networks is provided, which demonstrates how the new network measures and robustness indices can be applied to different supply chain, financial, and dynamic networks, including the Internet and electric power networks.

Module III - Mergers and Acquisitions, Network Integration, and Synergies reveals the connections between transportation networks and different network systems and quantifies the synergies associated with the network systems, from total cost reduction to environmental impact assessment. In the case of mergers and acquisitions, the focus is on supply chain networks. A system-optimization perspective for supply chain networks will be presented. Also, we will formalize coalition formation using game theory with insights into the merger paradox. Applications to humanitarian logistics operations will also be presented.

The tutorial is based on our book by the same name.

This tutorial is well-timed given the growing interest in network vulnerability and robustness as reported in this article in The New York Times, which highlights the ramifications of a recent scientific article published in the journal Safety Science.

2010 International Conference on Social Computing, Behavioral Modeling, and Prediction

Dr. Sun-Ki Chai, the program co-chair of the 2010 International Conference on Social Computing, Behavioral Modeling, and Prediction (SBP 2010), has announced that the conference program is now online. Registration for this conference as well as the tutorials prior and the workshop after is free! The conference takes place at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, March 30-31, 2010 and registration is required.

Information on the conference and the agenda are available here.

Dr. Patrick Qiang and I will be giving one of the four invited tutorials prior to the conference, on March 29, 2010, on the theme of our Fragile Networks book.

The growing number of disasters globally has dramatically demonstrated the dependence of our economies and societies on critical infrastructure networks. At the same time, the deterioration of the infrastructure from transportation and logistical networks to electric power networks due to inadequate maintenance and development as well as to climate change, has resulted in large societal and individual user costs. This tutorial will focus on recently introduced mathematically rigorous and computer-based tools for the assessment of network efficiency and robustness, along with vulnerability analysis. The analysis is done through the prism of distinct behavioral principles, coupled with the network topologies, the demand for resources, and the resulting flows and induced costs.

This tutorial will be taught in three modules. More information on all the tutorials can be found here.