Ukraine on the Brink of Disaster and Why We Wrote to President Obama and Our Congressmen

Just over  year ago I took part in the Dynamics of Disasters AAAS Symposium in Boston that I had organized and which featured several of our superstars in the profession.

Who would have thought that, in a year, not only did we have the Boston Marathon bombing, but now we are witnessing at terrifying speed the arrival of Russian military troops in Crimea, Ukraine, the site of the Network Science conference, at which I was an invited speaker a few years ago. I even blogged about my great taxi driver, Igor, and the lack of security at the Simferopol airport, one of the sites of what I can only call an invasion of sovereign Ukraine, whose people have suffered over generations. Over the past several months they were demonstrating in Kiev and beyond when Yanukhovich refused to bring the country closer to the West and, specifically,  to the European Union.

In the height of irony or, should I say, perspicacity, the Boston Strong colors look like the Ukrainian flag, with brilliant blue on top, and yellow on the bottom, which I photographed and posted here.

So what is an academic to do when the freedom of  a country is at stake, its sovereignty, and the will of its people, and when international laws are outrightly violated?

Honestly, I was reminded of the movie, which I saw in a drivein one summer, as a child: The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming! and which I have written about.

As I have shared with my readers, my first language is Ukrainian, since I immigrated to the U.S., having been born in Canada. I do have a degree in Russian Language and Literature from Brown University (and 3 more in Applied Math, because I love Operations Research).

I have many Russian friends and I love the language, its literature, the ballet, art, and music and we share similar cuisines. I have been to St. Petersburg - magical!

I wrote about my heritage recently and we have written to President Obama as well as to our Congressmen (including Senators Ed  Markey and  Elizabeth Warren).

President Obama has started to speak out and our former great Senator from Massachusetts, John Kerry, who is now the Secretary of State is doing so as well.   Kerry is expected to arrive in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine,  soon.

I speak Russian - does this give Putin the right to invade the U.S.?

Even the Swedes, in one of my favorite cities on the planet, Gothenburg, where I will be very soon, are expected to support a Ukrainian demonstration for freedom.

I thank all the outstanding journalists who are covering the news from Ukraine. I have tried to personally thank them as well.  Special thanks to The Washington Post and to the BBC and CNN for expert coverage and numerous OpEd pieces in support of Ukraine and freedom-loving people everwhere.

And, would you believe, I was invited to speak recently at a conference in Moscow at the beginning of April, and I would have accepted this great invitation, but I am committed to speaking in Boston at the INFORMS Analytics Conference.

My husband wore the tie below to teach today with the Ukrainian flag and tryzub emblems for solidarity with Ukraine.

I am Ukrainian and Canadian and American

I was at an optimization conference in Florida when the violence in Ukraine started to escalate and, coincidentally, two other U.S.-based faculty, who were also at the conference, but were born in Ukraine, brought this news to my attention.

Since my return to Amherst the news in Ukraine has only gotten worse with horrifying bloodshed and deaths and with many vivid reports -- see the one by Frida Ghitis, writing for CNN, with whom I have communicated.

The country of my parents, Ukraine, and that of my first language, is now frontpage news not only in the European press but also in the U.S.

I was born in Canada but did not learn how to speak English until we immigrated to the U.S., and I entered kindergarten.  Ukrainian was the language that we spoke at home. I, finally, visited Ukraine, when  I was invited to give a keynote talk in Yalta in August 2010 at the Network Science conference.

I first made a stop in Kiev,  now the epicenter of the demonstrations, which began in November, and which have reached a tipping point this week because of the frustration of the people.

Below are some photos from Kiev, where I was welcomed by a colleague from the University of Pittsbrugh, and ate the most delicious borshcht in my life and the same for the varenyky!

Yalta, the site of the conference, was spectacular as the photos below reveal and another location of historical importance plus the conference was fantastic!

Given the suffering in Ukraine, and that even one of my former doctoral students at the Isenberg School, Dmytro Matsypura, who is now tenured at the School of Business at the University of Sydney in Australia, took part in the Orange Revolution in Ukraine in 2004, I had to speak out.

Please, let the people be free. The government should protect its own citizens and let them be governed as they wish to be.  Look at how brilliantly Poland is doing, Ukraine's neighbor to the west.

Yesterday, after not much sleep, since I had returned from the Florida conference in the wee hours of the morn, I gathered some beautiful Ukrainian creations and photographed them. I display them below -- from our Easter eggs, to our ceramics, to lavish embroideries. Let's make peace and have art, beauty, and science rule instead of hatred and violence.

I am Ukrainian and Canadian and American.

What a Year it Was!

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way ... Charles Dickens from his novel, A Tale of Two Cities.

The beginning of 2010 was marked, for many of us, by the news of the horrific earthquake that struck Haiti last January 12; with the suffering of its people continuing to this day. It was followed, only two days after, by a "local" shocking event, that happened only one town over from Amherst, and that circulated around the world -- the suicide of 15 year old Phoebe Prince.

As educators and researchers, the above deeply tragic events, had some of us refocus our energies. And, of course, some of us also had personal and familial tragedies to deal with. But as is said, what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger.

At the same time, there were so many "best of times" and some of my highlights, as a professor, I list below.

• My former student and my co-author of the Fragile Networks book, Dr. Patrick Qiang, was honored with the Charles V. Wootan Award last January by the Council of University Transportation Centers in Washington DC for his doctoral dissertation, Network Efficiency / Performance Measurement with Vulnerability and Robustness Analysis with Application to Critical Infrastructure. Last March, Dr. Qiang joined me in giving a tutorial on the theme of our book at the SBP 2010 Conference at NIH. I then further disseminated our research in my tutorial at the ALIO-INFORMS Conference in Buenos Aires, which brought me, for the first time, to the continent of South America.
• A female PhD student of mine, Trisha Woolley (now Anderson) received her PhD in 2010 and assumed her Assistant Professorship at Texas Wesleyan University.Her dissertation title: Sustainable Supply Chains: Multicriteria Decision-Making and Policy Analysis for the Environment. She was my 15th PhD student to graduate and my 6th female.
• We celebrated the graduation of our wonderful undergraduate students from the Isenberg School last May -- another highlight of 2010!
• A former doctoral student of mine, Dr. Tina Wakolbinger, received an offer of a Full Professorship from the Vienna University of Economics and Business, a position which she will start next May, having been an Assistant Professor at the University of Memphis since receiving her PhD in 2007. Her research in humanitarian operations and, more recently, on electronic recycling, and that of my other former students and collaborators, give me hope for a better future.
• Two present doctoral students of mine had notable successes with their research: Min Yu had two papers accepted for publication, including: "Supply Chain Network Design for Critical Needs with Outsourcing," co-authored with Patrick Qiang and me. Also, Amir Masoumi completed the paper, with Min and me, entitled: "Supply Chain Network Operations Management of a Blood Banking System with Cost and Risk Minimization."
• The UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter, that I serve as the Faculty Advisor of, received the Magna Cum Laude Award for its activities at the INFORMS National Meeting in Austin, Texas last November. They have started both a Facebook page and are on twitter, thanks to the chapter's new President, Nathan Kollett.
  
• The Network Science conference in Yalta brought me to the country of the birthplace of my parents, Ukraine, whereas the Computational Management Science conference at the University of Vienna brought together so many of my favorite colleagues from around the globe.
• As for the INFORMS conference in Austin, Texas, thanks to all for the wonderful memories!
• Also, thanks to all of my undergraduate and graduate students (both present and former ones) for being so special and so terrific! You will help to change the world for the better!
  

Let me end with the words of a new community service organization, Count Me In, that was started in South Hadley, in response to the tragedy of Phoebe Prince's suicide, and an article on which appears in today's Daily Hampshire Gazette.

This organization has its motto emblazoned on the backs of its t-shirts:

Respond with integrity and kindness/Embrace diversity/Stand up courageously for others/Promote a climate of safety/Eliminate hurtful words and rumors/Care for and listen to others with compassion/Take responsibility for my actions.

The above words should be followed in our daily lives.

Because of a Postcard from Yalta I Won a Plate of Holiday Cookies!

Last night, at around 8:30PM, I received a phone call from Phyllis Lehrer, a columnist for the Amherst Bulletin, who writes the column: Network Amherst: The Lehrer Report.

She congratulated me and told me that my postcard from Yalta made me a winner of her winter postcard contest and that she wanted to know what time (today) she could bring over a plate of cookies that she had made. Phyllis runs a contest twice a year and selects the winners of the postcards sent to her that came from the greatest distance.

In the summer, the prize consists of tomatoes that she has grown. In the winter, the prize is a plate of holiday cookies. She gives out two prizes each time.

The competition this year was tough she told me, since she had identified the Pistrang family as one of the winners (and she had not been able to reach them), but then she had to do some research and serious measuring to determine whether my postcard or a postcard from our wonderful state representative, Stan Rosenberg, who had sent a postcard from Russia, had traveled the greater distance to Amherst. She felt confident that I was the winner. Stan had won this competition before when he sent a postcard from Bhutan, so I hope that he is not too disappointed !

I had been to Yalta last August to give a keynote talk at the Network Science conference there. The trip was an amazing adventure and the conference a big success as well. I can't share the postcard with you, since Phyllis has it, but you can read about my experiences and see photos here.

Above is the plate with wrapping and card that Phyllis brought over this morning. The collection of cookies consisted of: chocolate chip, peanut butter, oatmeal raisin, molasses, chocolate with peanut butter chips and peanut butter with chocolate kisses.

As someone who has written several times about baking cookies (and the logistics, thereof, since I practice what I teach at the Isenberg School), Phyllis' generosity and kindness capture in a unique way not only this special time of year but why the town of Amherst is like no other!

Thank you, Phyllis Lehrer. The cookies are delicious!

And as for what Stan Rosenberg was doing in Bhutan, this UMass Amherst grad was hiking the Himalayas!

********* Updated on December 24, 2010*******************************

The official announcement from Phyllis Lehrer in The Amherst Bulletin is here.

Wonderful Experiences as an Academic Tourist in Yalta, Ukraine

Last week I spent 4 nights at the Hotel Yalta in Crimea, Ukraine. The Hotel Yalta is a 1,000 room hotel complex dating to the Soviet era with the Black Sea on one side of it and the Crimean Mountains behind. I was at the hotel to take part in the 3rd Yalta Conference on Optimization (which will be the subject of a future blogpost, so do stay tuned).

The Yalta hotel is an hour and a half from the Simferopol airport.

Yalta is famous for, among other reasons, the Yalta Conference, which is sometimes referred to as the Crimea Conference, which took place back in 1945.

I was very lucky that, upon checking in, at about 10PM last Saturday, I received a key to Room 986, which was actually a suite with a living room and a bedroom, each with a hall upon entry and a balcony, with majestic views (see above). There were multiple doors, which were heavy, and which helped to block out hallway noise, so one could get much-needed sleep.

The hotel and town, which was a walk down a windy, narrow path, were both filled with tourists, speaking, primarily, Russian, with some conversing in Ukrainian. The "academic" tourists, typically, conversed in English, although several of us were non-native speakers of English and had origins (or heritage) from this part of the world.

I enjoyed the spirit of the people that I saw and encountered in Yalta. Many were there with their families and it is common (Yalta is sometimes called the Honolulu of this part of Europe) to see people strolling everywhere in their bathing suits (with women often wearing sarongs as coverups). The beaches are filled not with soft sand but rather with large rocks (this is not the Jersey Shore or Cape Cod or Florida) and the folks plant their towels to mark their spots. There are restaurants that line the beaches and small kiosks with souvenirs (although I did not find anything worthwhile to purchase).

Fruit stands where water can also be bought (necessary in the heat here) can be found on the path from the hotel to the town and the peaches and plums were exquisite. I washed the fresh fruit with bottled water and avoided drinking the tap water, which I hear comes from the Dnieper River with chlorine added to it.

The hotel provided a breakfast buffet on the 16th floor, which is not air-conditioned, but I ate outside on the balcony and enjoyed the seagulls and spectacular views. During our conference banquet in the same location (I will write about it soon) we had fans to help us cool off.

Staying at this hotel and walking around the town and boardwalk were quite the experiences. The organizers of the conference gave us "free" time in the afternoon to explore, which was very much appreciated.

Being able to speak both Ukrainian and Russian definitely helped and added to my comfort level.

The photos featured above, which I took last week in Yalta, speak for themselves, so enjoy!

Driving with Igor -- My Taxi Driver in Yalta

I made it back to Massachusetts last night after almost two weeks of travel, including eight flights, to speak at conferences in Vienna, Austria, and in Yalta, Ukraine.

I was feeling like George Clooney in the movie, "Up in the Air," and even a Lufthansa stewardess told me that my schedule had been much worse than hers. Also, Clooney never had to speak anything but English during his air travels.

But this is not a blogpost about my adventures in flight (those will come later) but my experiences driving in Ukraine with Igor, my taxi driver.

As I had written earlier, I landed at the Simferopol airport last Saturday as dusk was approaching on a flight from Kiev. Simferopol airport is in the Crimea, Ukraine, and I have never been to such an unusual and tiny airport. I was met by a swarm of taxi drivers (some of my colleagues call them sharks but I recognize that they just want to earn a living) and was able to identify my prearranged driver, "Igor," by his white cap, big smile, and his sign with an "A" on it. When I asked him, in Russian, what his name was, he answered, "Igor," so we were on our way.

The one and a half hour drive from Simferopol to the Hotel Yalta, where the second conference of my journey was taking place, was rather anxiety-provoking, since there is only one road between these two points; the road is shared by 70 year old trolley busses, and the road is extremely curvy, with the Black Sea on one side and the Crimean mountains on the other. Also, cars pass one another regularly on this road. (I have taken taxis in Naples and have been on a bus up to Anacapri on the island of Capri, so I have had my share of scary land-based travel experiences abroad).

Plus, Igor had a tv set on (he was very proud of his German-made Opel car), and, every once in a while, he would answer his cell phone calls. To distract him from using the cell I engaged him in conversation in Russian and got a lot of practice. He paid me what I consider to be a compliment. He identified me, given my accent, as being from Western Ukraine (and not a US citizen).

Igor told me about his life, about his going to school in Chechnya, and having been trained as a military parachutist and serving in Pskov, Russia. He, ultimately, fell in love with a girl in Crimea and decided to settle there. He regalled me with stories of some of the passengers that he had transported to/from the Yalta Hotel, which is a 1,000 room amazing hotel that I stayed in that dates to the Soviet era.

When we reached the hotel, I breathed a huge sigh of relief, paid him $50US (he preferred this method of payment to the Ukrainian currency), and told him that I would probably be using him again the following Wednesday for my morning return trip to the Simferopol airport for the flight to Kiev.

When Wednesday came, Igor was waiting for me at 7AM at the Hotel Yalta and my journey back began. Driving with Igor in the daylight was delightful (since, in a strange way, we had become friends). Frankly, he reminded me a bit of of the gentle giant Shrek (see photo above), which, coincidentally, was the movie playing on my Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt back to Boston.

Igor displayed such joy in his family, in his garden, and in his cats and dogs, and in his job of being a taxi driver, that it was very refreshing. We laughed a lot during our journey back.

He stopped the taxi to show me some magnificent views featured above (but his photo of me did not work). Upon our arrival at the Simferopol Airport, he treated me to an espresso at a tiny cafe opposite the terminal.

I have Igor's business card and would definitely use him again should my travels take me back to Yalta or the Crimea. He has even driven passengers to Kiev (10 hours) when flights were canceled due to bad weather.

What a Conference in Yalta

The second day of the 3rd Yalta Conference on Optimization with the theme of Network Science is now over with ( at least the technical part). The conference organizers have even planned an excursion to a local winery for this afternoon.

Yalta is a historic city located in Crimea, Ukraine.

I have enjoyed listening to the talks very much on wide-ranging network topics, including a fantastic talk on sensor networks in space and influence of space weather with risk analysis, prediction, and optimization.

Yesterday I gave a keynote talk, "Fragile Networks: Identifying Vulnerabilities and Synergies in an Uncertain World," which may be accessed in pdf format here.

Participants at this conference have come from the US, from Ukraine, Russia, Italy, and Romania. Some are students at US or Ukraine universities. The group from Romania drove for three days to get here; a couple from the US flew into Kiev and then drove down, whereas another group from Kiev took the train, which was late and they missed my talk.

It has been very special to be in this beautiful part of the world and to hear Ukrainian as well as Russian spoken.

The organizers of this conference have outdone themselves in attention to detail.

The banquet last night was exquisite and I will post photos after I return to the US.

In Ukraine for Network Science Conference

Yesterday I flew on Austrian Airlines from Vienna to Kiev, Ukraine. One of my seatmates was a Japanese lady who had graduated from Cornell University in regional planning and who works for the UN (UNICEF) in Kiev. We had a delightful conversation. The other seatmate was a lady from Donetsk who for years has been working in Italy although her husband and children live in Ukraine. I talked politics with her and it was so interesting to get a female perspective.

I was met at the Kiev airport by a colleague in operations research from the University of Pittsburgh who then took me out to lunch since I had a 5 hour wait until my flight to Yalta.

The lunch at the Kozachok restaurant was one of the best meals of my life -- delicious borshcht and varenyky (which are like dumplings) which were filled with cabbage and carrots and sauteed onions. We ate outdoors at a covered patio.

This trip to Ukraine has special meaning for me since it is the first time that I am visiting the country of the birthplace of my parents. The people are warm and very kind, and it is wonderful to hear my first language spoken and even announcements made in it.

I must say that the organizers of the Yalta Optimization conference with the theme of Network Science this year have been treating me royally.

My flight on Ukraine International Airlines from Kiev to Simferopol was excellent and my seatmates were gentlemen from Dubai (who amazingly ended up checking in at the same hotel just before me in Yalta). As for this airport, let me say that it is out of another era.

I was met by a taxi driver named Igor (this was preplanned and I was very grateful for this particular attention to detail) who wore a white cap and who had a sign with "A." We talked nonstop for an hour and a half during the winding taxi ride to Yalta. I had a great time conversing with him in Russian (he did identify that I had a Ukrainian accent).

The conference hotel is fantastic with views of the Black Sea on one side and mountains on the other.

Today I have a day of rest before the talks begin tomorrow.

I will be giving another keynote talk (different from the one I gave in Vienna last week).

There is nothing like international travel to enlighten one.

By the way, the gentlemen from Dubai had spent several days in Kiev and loved the city which they told me has a very special spirit.

Packing as an Optimization Problem -- Off to Europe

I will soon be on a two week trip to Europe to speak at conferences and have begun to pack.

Packing a suitcase is an optimization problem to which we can apply the tools of operations research.

First, consider the constraints:

I am assuming one carryon suitcase which must fit into the overhead compartment in the airplane(s) so I have to deal with a limited volume.

I am also limited as to the weight of the fully packed suitcase since I insist on carrying my suitcase on the plane and having it with me in my travels. (I recall not so fondly having to dump some of my favorite shoes at the Auckland airport since I was over the weight limit and refuse, if at all possible, to check my luggage, since my suitcase from Japan, lost two decades ago, compliments of United, has yet to arrive.) Also, every academic has his share of horror stories of suitcases that arrived at the destination after the talks were given.

One should pack for the weather (so I have been checking the weather forecasts for my two destinations) and for the occasion. I have to give two plenary talks so I have to look professional for the duration of the two conferences (besides my European mother instilled this in me and even as a child she dressed me in suits). In Vienna, the temps are forecasted to be rainy and cooler next week whereas Yalta is a summer tourist destination on the Black Sea and can be quite warm (but probably cooler than in the steamy Northeast of the US now).

Of course (I wonder whether male academics care about this), I believe that the clothing that one takes should be color-coordinated and in good taste (and one should not wear the same outfit every day). Plus, with the right combination of skirts, tops, and accessories (shoes matter, too), one can maximize the number of outfits that one can generate. One has to factor in those evening banquets and conference excursions.

Going for this period of time, one needs to also plan for including some exercise, so I will make do with a good pair of sneakers and some colorful t-shirts and shorts.

Luckily, conferences in the summer only require lighter-weight clothing!

So, I need to identify which resources (pieces of clothing) I should take with me in the carryon suitcase so that they do not exceed the volume of the suitcase nor the weight limit and maximize some representation of the utility or satisfaction that I get from bringing and wearing them. Additional constraints include "matching" type of constraints -- I can't very well just show up in only tops or only bottoms but need each day a complete outfit when I venture out.

One of my most challenging extended business trips took place a few years ago when I had to speak in Cyprus (where it was very hot), then fly to Iceland for a conference (with temps in the mid40s), and then back to give a talk in Erice, Sicily, where it was also very warm. Luckily, my husband and daughter met me in Iceland and brought warm clothing so I did not have to deal with that part.

I emailed my presentations to the organizers of the two conferences so I don't have to lug a laptop but have backups on a pendrive.

I solved the above optimization problem and am delighted with the result. I could include a photo of my suitcase contents but, instead, I will surprise you with photos after this trip.

And, remember to always take an umbrella!

Network Science in Yalta, Ukraine and Keynote

After the International Conference on Computational Management Science in Vienna, Austria, I will be off to give a keynote talk at the 3rd Yalta Optimization Conference, which will take place in Yalta, Ukraine, at the beginning of August. The theme of this year's Yalta conference is Network Science. Of course, this scientific conference should not be confused with the famous historic Yalta Conference of 1945!

I am looking forward to seeing this very scenic location on the Black Sea and to practicing both my Ukrainian and Russian. Plus, it will be great to reconnect with wonderful colleagues and friends there and to listen to the talks. Special thanks to the organizers: Professors Butenko, Prokopyev, and Shylo, for letting me deliver the keynote talk with title and abstract below.

Title: Fragile Networks: Identifying Vulnerabilities and Synergies in an Uncertain Age

Abstract: 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 talk 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. The concepts will be illustrated in the context of congested transportation networks, supply chains under disruptions, financial networks, and dynamic networks such as the Internet and electric power networks. We will further explore the connections between transportation networks and different network systems and will quantify synergies associated with network integration, ranging from corporate mergers and acquisitions to collaboration among humanitarian organizations.