Photos of Spring in Beautiful Sweden

As promised in my previous blogpost, in this post I am including photos that I took this past week in Gothenburg, Sweden, where I spent 10 days, as part of my contract as a Visiting Professor at the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg. This visit overlapped with spring break at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I am a professor at its Isenberg School of Management.

Given that there is more cold and snow in the forecast for Massachusetts this week even though spring has arrived, at least on the calendar, the below photos, taken in central Gothenburg and in Haga, which borders the Business School,  will remind us that, hopefully, we will eventually see some flowers and milder temperatures in New England!

Welcome back from spring break!

With best wishes for a great rest of the spring semester!

Commencement Speech -- On Great Leadership

Today, I had the great privilege and honor of delivering the commencement speech at the diploma ceremony in honor of the recipients of the Master's degrees at the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. There were a total of 105 graduates, ranging from Accounting, Finance, International Business and Trade to Economics and Transport and Logistics Management.

The theme of my speech was On Great Leadership. In my speech, I emphasized the importance of innovation and creation, doing the right thing, making opportunities for others, recognizing the achievements of others, supporting diversity, and remembering where you come from. I also noted that Great Leaders must be resilient, need to be great communicators, both in word and action, and keep their integrity. I highlighted both Swedish and US innovators and great leaders.

The full text of my commencement speech can be downloaded here.

The program of the ceremony is below.

The venue was a majestic University of Gothenberg building on Vasagaten. The photos below were taken at this very special event.

Congratulations to all the graduates -- I wish you all well on the new stage in your life's journeys!

Thank you for the great honor and opportunity to speak to you today.

Special thanks go to Dr. Maureen McKelvey, who is stepping down as the Dean of the Graduate School, and who has done so much for the school over the past 5 and a half years. Also, special thanks to Dr. Johan Malmsten, the Chair of the Board of the Malmsten Foundation, for the great support of the school, its programs, and its students. Today, he awarded checks of 10,000 kroner to each recipient of the best Master's thesis in a concentration.

And the Winner of the 2012 WORMS (Women in Operations Research and the Management Sciences) Award Is

I am on sabbatical now in Sweden and have been attending the Future Urban Transport Conference, which just finished up today in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Several of my doctoral students (present and former) were at the 2012 INFORMS Conference in Phoenix, Arizona and forwarded me the photos below from the WORMS luncheon.

This is one of my favorite fora and the WORMS Award Luncheon is always a favorite event.

Although I could not make it this year, it was great to have part of my network there. In addition, the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst, where I am a faculty member, was one of the sponsors of the lunch.

Congratulations to this year's WORMS Award winner, Dr. Vicki Sauter of the University of St. Louis, Missouri!

I have served as the Chair of the award committee in a previous year and am also a recipient of this award, and it means a tremendous amount to me.

Photos from the Integrated Risk Management in Operations and Global Supply Chains Conference in Montreal

Above are some photos taken at the INTRIM (Integrated Risk Management in Operations and Global Supply Chains) Conference that took place at lovely McGill University in Montreal, Canada recently.

I had the pleasure of speaking on our research on Medical Nuclear Supply Chain Design at this conference.

Many thanks to the organizers for putting together such an interesting set of presentations, all delivered in a single track, along with delicious coffee breaks, lunches, etc.

I especially enjoyed the originality of the problems that are being tackled and the challenges faced by industries in capturing system-wide risk.

As for photos of Montreal taken while I was there, click here.

Spectacular Deerfield Academy Graduation Through Photos

Today, May 29, 2011, the Deerfield Academy graduation took place in historic Old Deerfield on a day that began with clouds and then turned into a glorious one!

The event, complete with bagpiper, a drum corps, the graduating seniors, the other students, the faculty, members of the Board of Trustees, special guests, and families and friends, was simply spectacular.

The above photos capture some of the majesty of this special day.

Congratulations to the Deerfield Academy class of 2011!

Best wishes to you all!

Congratulations to the Class of 2011!

Now is the season of college graduations and a time to celebrate the accomplishments of our graduates!

The past two days UMass Amherst has been holding its graduations with the undergrad and grad ones taking place yesterday and many of the college and school ones today.

The Isenberg School held its graduation ceremony at the Mullins Center today and it was quite the special event.

Above are some photos of the graduates, faculty, and families.

Special thanks to the families of the graduates and congratulations to the class of 2011!

If you'd like to learn more about what makes UMass Amherst great, please view this video. Some alums brought it to my attention and it was a pleasure to be featured along with such colleagues as Professor Robert Pollin, Kevin Fu, Susan Leschine, and even Sheila Bair, who is stepping down as Chair of the FDIC as of July 1, 2011, and, perhaps, will return to the Isenberg School. Our Chancellor, Dr. Robert Holub, does a great job in the video of extolling the virtues of the research, education, and community at UMass Amherst.

Highlights and Photos -- The First Northeast Regional INFORMS Conference at UMass Amherst

It takes a lot of planning and hard work to put on a conference and any successful conference is a major collaborative effort that takes months of preparation and careful attention to detail and logistics.

The First Northeast Regional INFORMS Conference, which took place May 6-7, 2011, at UMass Amherst is now over and from all the comments that we have received, it was clearly a success.

Below I feature, through photos, some of the highlights of our conference.

Mornings at UMass Amherst Before the Sessions Began



Mary Magrogan and Tracy Byrnes of INFORMS with Some Members of the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter in the Registration Area

The Introductions by Dr. Hari Balasubramania, Chair of the Conference, and Dean Mark Fuller of the Isenberg School



The Plenary Talks by Dr. David Simchi-Levi of MIT, Dr. Alex "Sandy" Pentland of the Media Lab at MIT, and Dr. Brenda Dietrich of IBM




The Interesting Panels, Some of the Speakers, and Coffee Breaks






Poster Session, Reception, and Informal Get-Togethers






Special thanks to the institutions that provided financial support, including the Isenberg School and the College of Engineering at UMass Amherst, and to Dr. Hari Balasubramanian of the College of Engineering at UMass Amherst and to Dr. Les Servi of MITRE, for their extraordinary efforts in making this conference a success. It was such a pleasure to work with them.

Also, thanks to all those who traveled to our campus and gave such wonderful presentations and engaged everyone in stimulating conversations and discussions.

Thanks and applause to Mary Magrogan and Tracy Byrnes of INFORMS for spending several days at UMass Amherst and for doing so much before and doing the conference.

I would also like to thank the officers and members of the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter who helped out with the projectors, the session notices, by giving directions, etc. Plus, many of the members presented their research and some even were panelists!