It's All About the Scholarship and Collegiality -- Great Regional Science Conference in Atlanta

I returned from Atlanta, Georgia around 1AM this morning.

As I wrote in my previous post, I was at the 60th North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association International (RSAI) .

 

I flew out this past Thursday, after teaching my undergraduate Logistics &Transportation class at the Isenberg School. I  had a very busy time at this great conference.

I think that Professor David Plane of the University of Arizona, who is an RSAI Fellow,  and a wonderful regional scientist, geographer, and demographer,  said it best in his essay in  the November 2013 RSAI newsletter about what is great about regional science intellectually. He stated that: I believe regional science offers “an almost perfect disciplinarily neutral meeting ground.” As in Walter’s vision, it continues to attract top minds bringing technical prowess from many directions to important societal issues of space and location. And the plain and simple style of regional science – it’s all about the scholarship and collegiality without the extraneous trappings of other disciplines and groups – has engendered remarkable loyalty among its adherents.

Of course, "Walter" is none other than the founder of Regional Science, Walter Isard, and, in Atlanta, we honored his memory in two special sessions, the second of which took place yesterday and at which I delivered the paper, An Integrated Disaster Relief Supply Chain Network Model with Time Targets and Demand Uncertainty, Anna Nagurney, Amir H. Masoumi, and Min Yu.  I also discussed the recent Haiyan typhoon in the Philippines during my presentation and the relevance of our model to the preparedness and response phases of disaster relief.

The photo below was taken after the session and includes the speakers, an organizer, and discussants.

 

And,  the day before,  I had the pleasure of listening to the great presenters in a special session that I organized in honor of Professor David E. Boyce's 50th consecutive attendance at this conference, dating back to his first in 1964!

We had the photo below taken of the presenters after this special session.. Professor Boyce is in the bright red tie and smile.

Detailed information on these sessions, the speakers, and their paper titles can be found in my previous post.

Also, Professor Boyce was recognized with a special plaque at yesterday at the Awards Luncheon in Atlanta and a major donation was given in his name to the Benjamin Stevens Graduate Fellowship Fund. Professor Ben Stevens was Professor Boyce's dissertation advisor at UPenn and Boyce spoke about how Isard and Stevens mentored him and how now he does the same for others (and has done so for many years).

 

I definitely concur with David Plane's statement about the scholarship and collegiality surrounding the discipline of regional science and I would also add the mentorship of many of its senior members who are also terrific advocates of colleagues, both junior and senior.

It was great to see friends from around the globe and to get such positive and worthwhile comments on the papers presented. This conference has a very nice model of also having a discussant for a paper.

Professor Walter Isard would have been very proud at the success of this conference (the lunch was also delicious) and to see his amazing legacy living on after his passing.

 

And, as for the Memorial volume that is being guest edited by Professors Peter Nijkamp and Adam Rose, we are so honored that our paper, noted above, will be in it (after we incorporate some feedback) and the Nobel laureate, Paul Krugman,  also will have a chapter in it, which I noted previously on this blog.

Is this a Scientific Guinness World Record -- Attendance at 50 Consecutive Annual Meetings of the Same Conference!

I don't think that Guinness in its compilation of World Records has a category for this achievement but perhaps it should.
In November, Professor David Boyce, who is both an INFORMS Fellow and an RSAI Fellow, will be attending his 50th consecutive North American Regional Science conference, which will take place in Atlanta, Georgia. His first such conference was in 1964! Walter Isard was the founder of Regional Science and he passed away in 2010 at age 91.
 
David reflected on his Fifty Years at the North American Regional Science Meetings (we are assuming that he will be there in Atlanta and 49 consecutive meetings is an achievement, as well). in an essay published in the NARSC newsletter in which he wrote:
I attended my first Meetings of the Regional Science Association in November 1964 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. At the time I was a graduate student focused on my thesis research, and working full time on the side to support my expanding family. Through careful planning, and extraordinary good luck, I have not missed the North American Meetings since. If my luck continues to hold, I will attend my 50th consecutive North American Meetings next November in Atlanta.

I have wondered out loud to a few people what I might do to commemorate this event. The likely answer is nothing unusual: give a 20-minute talk, and say hello to the many colleagues I have met over the years, whose friendship I cherish. This invitation to write a few lines for the first newsletter of the North American Regional Science Council presents an unexpected opportunity to say more on this occasion that may interest younger readers, as well as remind some of my contemporaries about the meetings back then.

Given Professor Boyce's outstanding scientific contributions, his mentorship and advocacy of numerous students and professional colleagues, and his impact on transportation and regional science globally, I had to do something to honor this very special person.


So, I asked the Program Chair of the NARSC conference, Dr. Peter Stenberg, and its Executive Director, Dr. Neil Reid, whether I could organize a special session in honor of Professor Boyce, and they both agreed. The response was wonderful and below I have the information on the session, which will take place at the NARSC conference on Friday, November 15, 2013, from 10:30AM-12:30PM. And, if you see Professor Boyce, in the meantime, congratulate him on his stamina, dedication, and as, he even acknowledges, "luck."

Session: In Honor of Professor David E. Boyce – His 50^th NARSC Conference – His Scholarship and Mentorship

Organizer: Anna Nagurney, John F. Smith Memorial Professor, Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Paper #1: Conventional Transportation Planning Models: Review and Prospects for Alternatives

Presenter: Tschangho John Kim, Endowed Professor Emeritus, Urban and Regional Systems, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; email: tjohnkim@illinois.edu

Paper #2: A Corridor-Centric Approach to Planning Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure

Presenter: Marco Nie, Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois; email: y-nie@northwestern.edu

Paper #3: David Boyce, RSAI Archivist

Presenter: Kieran Donaghy, Department Chair, Department of City & Regional Planning, Cornell University, Ithaca, NewYork; e-mail: kpd23@cornell.edu

Paper #4: Shrinking Global Population - a Futuristic Scenario or a Current Challenge 

Presenter: Hillel Bar-Gera, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev; email: bargera@bgu.ac.il

David Boyce has served as a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania (1966-1977), the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1977-1988), and the University of Illinois at Chicago (1988-2003). He is a Fellow of the Regional Science Association International (2002), the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (2003), and the American Society of Civil Engineers (2009), and is an Emeritus Member of the Transportation Networks Committee of the Transportation Research Board. He has published over 190 journal articles, books, book chapters and reports.

A Night to Remember -- Japan RSAI Honors Professor David E. Boyce for his Transportation Research

I am back from Ottawa, Canada where I took part in the 59th Annual North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association International, November 7-10, 2012.

On Friday, November 9th, 2012, I attended a truly special dinner honoring the contributions of Professor David E. Boyce. I had blogged earlier about the conference as well as a special dinner invitation that I received from Professor Yoshiro Higano, the President of the Japan Section of the RSAI (Regional Science Association International).

The dinner took place at the Sterling restaurant outside of Ottawa.

Professor Boyce was honored with a special award on the 50th anniversary of the Japan Section of the RSAI for his paper, "Predicting Road Traffic Route Flows Uniquely for Urban Transportation Planning, " published in the  Studies in Regional Science, vol.42, no.1, The 50th Anniversary Special Issue.

In his statement, Professor Higano noted that Professor David Boyce is an expert in transportation planning. He has been engaged for many years in practical urban transportation planning in large urban areas including Chicago in the US and has actively participated in international scholarly meetings of regional science, transportation planning, urban and regional planning, and so on.

In fact, Professor David E. Boyce  has attended 49 North American meetings of the Regional Science Association International in the past 49 years!    What an amazing scientific feat and, as he told me, also luck!

Professor Higano noted that the traffic assignment model, which was developed by Professor Boyce and his heirs in the field of Transportation Engineering, has had  a great impact on practice and theory in the field of urban transportation planning in Japan in 1970’s. The methodology was based on stochastic probability theory.

I can personally attest to Professor David E. Boyce's scholarship and will always value his mentorship and friendship as research in traffic network equilibrium has evolved over the decades!

He remembers the first time that he met me and that was at the regional science conference in Denver, Colorado, shortly after I had received my PhD from Brown University. My dissertation advisor, Professor Stella Dafermos, who passed away in 1990, and I had traveled to the conference.

Below, I have posted some photos of the exceptional meal and ceremony in Ottawa, hosted by Professor Higano in honor of Professor Boyce -- the conversation, stories, and laughter we will always treasure.

Congratulations to Professor David E. Boyce, who, among his many other notable recognitions, is also an INFORMS Fellow and an RSAI Fellow!

Going to Canada and a Letter from Japan

Today is  election day for the President of the US and I am already getting many emails from Europe from colleagues there who are anxious about the outcome -- will it be President Obama for another four years or President Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts?

Needless, to say, I am very anxious about the outcome as well.

The New York Times, last Sunday, had a rather tongue-in-cheek article: At  a Loss? There's Always Canada by Joh Ortved that was commented on in the British press.

I was born in Canada, in Windsor, across the border from Detroit and travel regularly to Canada to give invited seminars and to present papers at conferences. Every time that I cross the border I feel a sense of comfort and recognition.

This week, after the voting is over, and the winner is finalized, I will be off to Ottawa, the capital of Canada.

I will be taking part in the 59th Annual North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association International. and will be delivering the presentation,  "A Dynamic Network Oligopoly Model with Transportation Costs, Product Differentiation, and Quality Competition,"   based on the paper co-authored with a doctoral student of mine, Dong "Michelle" Li. The research behind this paper is funded, in part, by our National Science Foundation (NSF) grant CISE #1111276, for the NeTS: Large: Collaborative Research: Network Innovation Through Choice project awarded to the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

I am a Fellow of the Regional Science Association International (RSAI) and always look forward to this conference, which has a discussant for each paper, and takes place in interesting locations. Last year the conference was in Miami, immediately before the INFORMS conference in Charlotte, which worked out very well. The North American RSAI conference always has very nice social activities, including an RSAI Fellows lunch,  and interesting plenary talks and special sessions. Plus. I enjoy seeing many colleagues from around the globe!

This year, and I hope that the forecasted nor'easter blows through before I board the plane to Canada in which everyone gets an aisle and a window seat simultaneously, we will also be celebrating  Professor David E. Boyce's recent award. Professor Boyce is both an RSAI Fellow and an INFORMS Fellow and a very special colleague.  Dave and I wrote the preface, published in the INFORMS journal, Transportation Science,  to the translation of the Braess paradox (1968) paper that I did with Braess and with my former doctoral student, Tina Wakolbinger (who is now a Full Professor in Austria). I have collaborated on other papers with Professor Boyce, as well.

The Japan RSAI, which celebrated her 50th Anniversary this year,  has awarded Professor Dr. David Boyce a Special Award.   Professor Yoshiro Higano of Tsukuba University shared with me this wonderful news when I was in Gothenburg, Sweden last month. He will be representing Japan RSAI  to present the award to Professor Boyce during a dinner scheduled for Friday evening, 9th November, 2012, in Ottawa.   


I received the lovely invitation letter below, which I very much appreciate.

I am very much looking forward to going to Canada!

Remembering Professor John M. Quigley of UC Berkeley

The sad news reached me during a time when we celebrate many college graduations and other milestones.

John M. Quigley, a renowned urban economist and regional scientist, passed away last Saturday, May 12, 2012.

The news reached me via David E. Boyce, both an INFORMS Fellow and an RSAI Fellow.

The Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California Berkeley issued a statement on his passing, and Ed Glaeser of Harvard University wrote the following column for Bloomberg on Quigley's outstanding contributions to the understanding of housing and its pricing, "An Economist Who Changed the Way We Think About Housing." in which he also noted the important role that Quigley played in mentoring young scholars.

I couldn't agree more.

As a relatively fresh PhD, I published both co-authored (with Stella Dafermos) and single-authored papers in the journal, Regional Science and Urban Economics, on spatial competition and oligopolies and just this morning I was working on a draft of a paper  that cites the paper published therein with Dafermos in 1987, which, in my opinion, contains some of the very first ideas that are relevant supply chain network competition. John Quigley was then the Editor in Chief of this journal.

In addition, David E. Boyce wrote in a message, reprinted below, that went out to RSAI Fellows today:

It seems appropriate to mention at this time John's role in establishing the RSAI Fellows Award. On November 7, 2000, I sent a letter to Geoffrey Hewings, then President of RSAI, proposing the establishment of a Fellows Award for our association. I did not discuss the proposal, or argue for its implementation, but only asked that it be presented to the RSAI Council for discussion.

As I recall, one member of the Council especially liked this idea, drafted a resolution for its implementation, and lobbied for its adoption. That person, of course, was John Quigley. We all have John to thank for whatever recognition we have received as RSAI Fellows.

John received the RSAI Fellows Award in 2004, the third group of scholars to be so honored.

David Boyce


We were honored to have known John M. Quigley. He will be missed.