Some of the Highlights of the Great POMS Conference in Orlando!

I hope that everyone who took part in the POMS Conference in Orlando, which took place May 22-25, 2023, has returned safely to their homes. It was wonderful to be at this in-person POMS conference, the first such one since the 2019 POMS Conference, which took place in Washington DC.

I thought it important to document some of the highlights of the 33th Annual POMS Conference in Orlando, albeit, of course, from a personal perspective. I am sure that each conferee has their own special memories and experiences. This was truly an international conference and I was delighted to see and meet colleagues from many countries, including from The Netherlands, Norway, Germany, Finland, and even Brazil. Asia was also well-represented. 

I arrived mid-afternoon on Monday and at the Exhibit Hall I was thrilled to see Springer Nature Editor Matt Amboy and the display of Springer books. And there, on display, was my newest book, "Labor and Supply Chain Networks," which was published in 2023.

The venue for the conference was stunning - the Hyatt on International Drive.  The full program for the conference can be accessed here. Below is a photo of a late afternoon view taken from the 26th floor.

I enjoyed the keynote talk by Scott Colloredo, the Director of the Engineering Directorate at NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida (but sadly missed the keynote by Dr. Nada Sanders since I was traveling). It was interesting that the 2 keynote talks were both scheduled for last Monday. 

The sessions that I attended were organized in the Humanitarian Operations and Crisis Management track and I especially appreciated the breadth of innovative problems that are being tackled and addressed. Below is a sample.

I thank Dr. Mohammad Arbabian for the invitation to speak in his session. Coincidentally, he is at the Pamplin School of Business at the University of Portland, where my former PhD student, now an Associate Professor there, Dr. Min Yu, is also on the faculty. It was wonderful that she came to our session. Below are photos of the speakers in our session, a group photo, and also a photo with some of the members of the audience. Thanks to all who joined us!

I also enjoyed a panel of editors of the POM journal.

Although there were many conferees that I did not got get a chance to see - the conference was quite large with over 2 dozen parallel sessions, I did, through pure serendipity, encounter and exchange pleasantries with Renzo Akkerman, whom I have cited in quite a few papers on perishable food supply chains co-authored with Min Yu and Deniz Besik (both of whom were in attendance at the conference).

It was also great to see Marianne Jahre of Norway and Sarah Schiffling, who is now at Hanken in Finland. I was with Marianne in Cartagena, Colombia, back in 2019, where we were both invited speakers at a logistics conference organized at the Escuela Naval. I blogged the conference and unique experiences there.

And, of course, sharing meals with Deniz Besik, who is now an Assistant Professor at the University of Richmond, was terrific and also with Min Yu. It was great to have Ladimer S. Nagurney accompany me to the conference!

The title of my presentation at the conference was: "Supply Chain Game Theory Network Modeling Under Labor Constraints: Applications to the COVID-19 Pandemic." The presentation was based on a paper that I authored that was published in the European Journal of Operational Research. I was deeply honored when it received an Editor's Choice Award.

The complete slide deck of my presentation can be downloaded here.

Kudos to the staff at the Hyatt. Their friendliness and professionalism were so appreciated. I very much enjoyed meeting Alexandra from Haiti and Natalia from Lviv, Ukraine, who are working at The Diner at the Hyatt. It was very moving to speak with Natalia in Ukrainian. She had arrived in the US only 6 months ago.

And, it so happens that, next Friday, I will be giving the opening talk at the Innovations in Immigration Analytics Conference at WPI. My talk will be on refugee networks and regulations. Many thanks to Andrew Trapp for inviting me to speak.

And, for those wishing to walk down Memory Lane, please visit my blogpost on the POMS Conference in Washington DC!

Many thanks to the organizers of the POMS Conference for such a rewarding conference both scientifically and socially!

My Letter to the Editor on the Great UMass Amherst - Kyiv School of Economics Partnership is Published!

I do believe that it is very important to share news with the public, especially if it concerns very timely initiatives and higher education and the partnership between the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) in Ukraine is an outstanding example!

Below is the Letter to the Editor that I wrote that was published in The Republican, the major newspaper in western Massachusetts.

The letter, which was accepted for publication by the Executive Editor, Larry Parnass, in a very warm message to me, recognizes the importance of the 1 year partnership, which was established shortly after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia on February 24, 2022. 

Some background information on the partnership can be found in this UMass Amherst press release.

The partnership is now helping to support 15 Virtual Scholars in Ukraine, who are working with faculty at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. I have the honor of serving as the faculty host of 4 scholars. This partnership is reducing brain drain from Ukraine and is enhancing research of all those involved. New research topics have also been identified and papers already published.

We hosted 3 events this academic year. The first was on November 30, 2022, at which we welcomed the 8 scholars working with the Isenberg School faculty. An additional scholar has since joined. You may read the nice article that the Isenberg School has posted on this event. The courage of our colleagues in Ukraine is awe-inspiring as is their dedication to continuing to teach and to conduct research.

On February 22, 2023, the President of KSE, Tymofiy Mylovanov, visited UMass Amherst and met with faculty hosts as well as university leaders during a very dynamic, engaging, and moving visit to our campus.

And, on May 3, 2023, we hosted the Rector of KSE, Tymofii Brik, at UMass Amherst, and I expounded on his visit in my Letter to the Editor! We began the day with a symposium and, in the afternoon, Rector Brik spoke on the Resilience of Ukrainian Universities and Communities!

Below I include collages that we constructed to highlight the special visit in photos. 

I am very grateful to the Vice Provost for Global Affairs Kalpen Trivedi and to his team at the International Programs Office at UMass Amherst for the extraordinary support provided to make this unique partnership in wartime so special and synergistic. 

Massachusetts and the United States Must Support Ukrainian Students and Scholars

This blogpost is co-authored with Dr. Ladimer S. Nagurney. Since the latest war on Ukraine began on February 24, 2022, we, as many others around the globe, have been preoccupied with the unprovoked, unjustified invasion of this democratic, sovereign nation, with atrocities being committed by the Russian invaders that continue to escalate and to create horrific pain, suffering, death, destruction, environmental impacts, as well as supply chain disruptions.

We are both educators and are lucky to live in the state of Massachusetts with renowned higher education institutions that serve as a magnet for students and scholars from around the globe. Colleges and universities are the bedrock of democratic societies and now Ukrainian institutions of higher education are at grave risk because of the unprovoked aggression by Putin and his war on beautiful Ukraine and its people.

One of the major successes during the three decades of Ukrainian independence has been the development of a robust system of higher education. There are now several universities in Ukraine that, in terms of instruction and research, can compete on the world stage. In addition to domestic students, these institutions attract students from the developing and developed countries alike. The war on Ukraine presents immense challenges for Ukrainian universities. Because of the war, classes across Ukraine have been canceled; some, amazingly, have been moved to online formats, and some of the students, faculty, and staff have scattered, seeking locations of greater safety. Many of the able-bodied males, from ages 18-60, have joined the military or the territorial defense forces. Even females are assisting in the valiant fight for freedom of their nation.

The first author of this post is the Co-Chair of the Board of Directors (BOD) of the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE)  in Ukraine, a leading business school, and also serves on its International Academic Board (IAB), providing with fellow board members from universities such as the University of Chicago, Yale, Duke, UC Berkeley, SUNY Stony Brook, University of British Columbia in Canada, University of Houston, and Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, guidance on curricula, research and scholarship and the teaching of faculty, as well as inputs into strategic plans. These are  voluntary roles. She serves on the BOD with a former US Ambassador to Ukraine (John Herbst) and on the IAB with Roger Myerson, a Nobel laureate in Economics, who is the Chair of the IAB. Since the Russian forces entered Ukraine on February 24, 2022, in significant numbers, without provocation, the BOD and IAB members have been holding many emergency meetings with the school administrators, some of which remain in the Kyiv area  to manage the school and its assets during this war. 

The courage of the students, staff, faculty, and administration at KSE and other universities in Ukraine is awe-inspiring. Students are working the supply lines from western Ukraine eastward, at risk to their lives,  to ensure food, water, and medicines and other supplies.  The KSE Foundation, in turn, is raising funds for humanitarian relief. The KSE administration is tracking the status of its students and faculty to see whether everyone is accounted for as many of them now engage in the battle for their country.  Our emergency meetings can get terrifying, since lights may be shut off in places where my colleagues in Ukraine are joining us virtually so as not to provide identification for targeting. And, when the sirens wail, they have to run for shelter.

Although some of the formal classes have stopped, education, nevertheless, continues through the hosting of webinars through KSE, and open to the public, of leading international thought leaders (David Petraeus, Paul Krugman, Michael McFaul, Nicholas Christakis, Nassim Taleb, to name a few) and of panels of KSE faculty, including the KSE President Tymofyi Mylovanov, VP Tymofii Brik, Director of the KSE Institute Nataliia Shapoval, and Vice President of Economic Education Oleg Nivievskyi, informing the public of  the impacts of the war. Having such educational events provides the KSE community (and us) with a "sense of normalcy." We do not know how long such events can continue given the escalation of the war and the great uncertainty plus risks.

It is important to emphasize that students educated at Ukrainian universities have assumed positions in the government, at various consulting companies, high tech companies, and many businesses.  The President of KSE Mylovanov is a former Minister of Trade of Ukraine and is also a Professot at the University of Pittsburgh.

There are many institutions of higher learning in Ukraine that need our support now. While numerous faculty senates and professional organizations in the United States have issued statements of solidarity with Ukraine and have condemned the war,  these are only the first steps. A second step, which is also very important symbolically, is to have universities issue Memoranda of Agreement (MOA) with universities in Ukraine. We are pleased that the University of Massachusetts Amherst entered into an MOA with KSE on March 14, 2022. This  agreement provides also very important psychological support and can be leveraged for additional funds to support individual students, researchers, and faculty from Ukraine, for short-term stays, for example.  In addition, options of reserving room in online classes for students in Ukraine, as well as those displaced by the war, can yield immense benefits. We are grateful to Kalpen Trivdei of the UMass Amherst International Programs Office for championing this MOA. One can also donate to foundations of Ukrainian universities, some of which are based in the US.

KSE, for example, is not only raising funds for humanitarian relief, but, in addition, is using its expertise and connections with government authorities to provide delivery of needed supplies in an effective, efficient manner even under conditions of extraordinary complexity and challenges.

Universities in Ukraine also need funding to pay their employees. We do not know the end-game for this war at this time but it is essential that higher education in Ukraine be supported in all manner possible, now, in the short-term as well as in the long-term.

Certain high tech companies are starting to enhance data preservation of Ukrainian universities. 

There is even a promising initiative in the works for a Ukrainian Global University with the Kyiv School of Economics and the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv leading the charge.

We hope that the US government and our well-endowed foundations can step up. The democracy of the free world is at stake. Massachusetts can lead in the efforts!

Investing in Private Markets for Social and Environmental Benefits - Brilliant Lecture by UMass Amherst PhD Alum Dr. Stavros Siokos

A fabulous aspect of being an academic is not only the fascinating people one meets professionally but also in that one is always learning, growing, and challenging oneself. 

Some of that great professional and personal growth comes through hearing experts speak on their latest work!

This past week, I had the pleasure of welcoming back to the UMass Amherst campus, my 6th PhD student, Dr. Stavros Siokos, who is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Astarte Capital Partners, based in London, England. Dr. Siokos and I co-authored the Financial Networks book, which was published by Springer  in 1997, as well as multiple journal articles.

Stavros has had a meteoric career in the financial industry and it was wonderful to have him speak in our UMass Amherst INFORMS Speaker Series. He has received major awards for his work, including the "CEO Today Europe Award 2018," "Game Changer of 2018" by the Finance Monthly, and "The Most Innovative Manager of 2017" by Fund Intelligence.

Dr. Siokos flew in from London to Boston and, Tuesday evening, on a very chilly day that broke records, we dined at Judie's in downtown Amherst. The food was delicious!

Stavros started his career at Salomon Brothers in London and later became Managing Director of Citigroup. I recall picking up a copy of the Wall Street Journal and seeing the announcement of his appointment as Managing Director! When I have a chance to be in London, I always try to make a point of seeing him. And, because he has offices in major cities around  the globe, I have even "run into" him in the middle of Manhattan, during the holiday season, no less.

His talk at the Isenberg School on investing in private markets for social and environmental benefits was truly inspirational.

As a PhD alumnus of UMass Amherst, it was very special and meaningful for the PhD students and, even undergraduates in the audience, to see what one can accomplish through hard work, dedication, focus, and also charisma, I might add. A favorite slide from his presentation was the one below quoting Charles Darwin, which Stavros paraphrased as: "If you aren't able to adapt to change, you die!"

Stavros began his talk by emphasizing UN sustainability goals, and the making of investments that "help" everyone. He asked the question: "What is the biggest impact that we can have?"

He also noted mega macro trends in his fabulous presentation, including the ageing of the population, food security, and climate change.

He emphasized that "if you do something good, you will make more." He discussed, also accompanied with outstanding videos, some of  his company's investments, from Project Cusco in Paraguay, where eucalyptus is being grown with areas between the growth reserved for farming; investments in India and East Africa, with the latter involving a female in Kenya, who is producing very successful soap products,  as well as the amazing Olympia project that he is involved in, in London!

It was clear that his Operations Research PhD background illuminates a lot of his work. He stated that "let's do mining, but make it better;"  "let's make container ships more efficient," and so on. It was clear from his presentation that, when it comes to supply chains and sustainability, that we need to include the full life cycle costs and impacts.

It was also very moving to hear about the investments into education, including that of children with disabilities.

Stavros has had the pleasure of meeting Nelson Mandela and former President Bill Clinton, among many other leaders, and has even been advising Warren Buffett. Buffett once asked Stavros his ideas on how to become successful, and, when Stavros told him that it is "Doing what you want, where you want to do it, and when," Buffet responded that that is the definition of success. But to achieve that, you have to hang in there until you become "lucky."

I always tell my students that one needs to take into consideration where an individual has started from to appropriately measure one's success. 

After his fabulous presentation, I took a photo of some of the students with Dr. Siokos.

Haris Sipetas, the incredible UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter webmaster, conducted an interview with Dr. Siokos in the Supernetworks Lab at the Isenberg School. The interview, once edited and approved, will be posted on the chapter's youtube channel, where you can access previous interviews with our speakers (and learn a lot)! And, for additional photos and highlights, please check out Haris' post on Dr. Siokos' talk. What serendipity and an incredible coincidence - both Sipetas and Siokos had received undergraduate degrees in engineering from the University of Patras in Greece!

Fabulous Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the PhD Program at the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst

This past Friday, we marked an extraordinary milestone - the 50th anniversary of the PhD Program at the Isenberg School of Management, with alums, family members, present doctoral students, faculty, and guests convening for a special celebration.

This event was months in the planning and was the first gala event to take place in our $62 million Business Innovation Hub (BIH) at the Isenberg School. In fact, next Friday we are having the official unveiling of the BIH. Thanks to the PhD Director, Dr. George Milne, and to Mike Korza and Sophia Love for a day that brought 220 of us from as far as such countries as Austria and Canada, and states of California, Oregon, and Idaho back for the celebration.

The full program can be viewed here.

The day began with registration and many greetings and hugs and at the lunch Dr. Milne and Interim Dean Tom Moliterno had opening remarks.

 

 

There have been 437 PhD graduates of our program, to-date, and we expect another 13 graduates this May! It was thrilling to see that the first PhD recipient was in Management Science. I have had the honor of being the PhD Area Coordinator in Management Science for many years and am back to doing that service role again, which I enjoy very much. 

There was also a fascinating slide show posted on screens throughout the Isenberg School providing highlights of our program and it was fun to see photos of colleagues from decades ago (some faculty, honestly, do not change much).

Dr. Milne even had a slide highlighting the list of those who had chaired the highest number of dissertations, and I was so honored to be on the list - even more so, since 10 of  those PhD students of mine  came back for the celebration! I have also chaired dissertations in Engineering and co-chaired one in Math/Stats. Interestingly, the Management Science, Finance, and Organization Behavior tracks of our doctoral program have graduated the highest percentage of PhDs, tied for 19% each! The list of my graduated PhD students is here.

The day was one of community, recognizing what has made our doctoral program unique, and celebrating the past, present, and future. It was also about reconnecting face to face and sharing experiences and even wisdom. For some, it was the first time back to their alma mater since they received their PhD (and now they are tenured Professors).

After the lunch, we broke out into different tracks and I thoroughly enjoyed giving my presentation, which was then followed by a panel of Management Science PhD alums that I had organized. Attendance was fabulous at both and we had photo ops as well.

My full presentation can be downloaded here. It involved a lot of research and was very enjoyable to prepare and deliver.

 

The Management Science PhD panel  included panelists from both industry and academia and you can read more about these stellar alums here.  The panelists were: Professor Jose M. Cruz of the University of Connecticut, Professor Davit Khachatryan of Babson College, Professor Patrick Qiang of Penn State, Dr. Padma Ramanujam of SAS, and Professor Shenghan Xu of the University of Idaho.

I had provided the panelists with two questions prior to their arrival but time was too short to cover everything! What clearly stood out is how much our Management Science PhD alums gained through close mentorship in scholarship, experiences teaching, and also various enriching service activities through the award-winning UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter! And, Dr. Tina Wakolbinger, who, as a PD student, helped me to establish this student chapter back in 2004 (and I have served as its Faculty Advisor since) was not only in the audience but she was also one of the two keynote speakers at the dinner banquet Friday evening. Dr. Wakolbinger had arrived with her family a few days earlier from the Vienna University of Economics and Business in Austria, where she was appointed a Full Professor only 4 years after her PhD. (If you know of anyone making this rank in academia faster, do let me know.) She gave a guest lecture in my Humanitarian Logistics and Healthcare class on Thursday morning.

The photo below is of those that took part in the Management Science sessions on Friday afternoon, along with Dr. George Milne.

The atmosphere was one of warmth, excitement, and pure happiness. The journeys that we all have been on have been quite exceptional, I must say. To have a student traveling far to study and to receive a doctorate takes courage and involves risk and it was clear that the hard work has yielded payoffs and great returns.

At the banquet dinner, we had the pleasure of listening to Professor Tina Wakolbinger and to Dr. Dennis Hanno, President of Wheaton College, speak.

It was extra special to be seated with them and their families and also with our great former Isenberg School Dean Dr. Tom O'Brien!

Also, at the dinner, Professor Emeritus Dr. Tony Butterfield was recognized with the inaugural Isenberg PhD Service Award named after him!

After the delicious dinner we took more photos and it was clear to me that we did not want the day to end.

Thanks to all that came back to their alma mater for the 50th anniversary of the Isenberg PhD Program.  And, in the past day or so, I have continued to receive wonderful messages as to how much everyone enjoyed Friday. A truly special message from one of my first PhD students that I received is below.

Your talk was inspiring and very interesting! The event was so well put together. 

Words can't express my feelings, nor my thanks to you! You taught us not only how to do research, but also in every aspect of life. 

On my way back, I can't help recall so many stories happened during my fours years at UMASS. My first paper, first trip to Canada, first conference, first computer (your 386), first class.....

Thank you , Professor!!!

Being a Professor is the best job in the world!