Brilliant Lecture by Dr. Elinor Ostrom, Nobel Laureate and Activist

This week the theme has certainly been the environment and sustainability, from the SAMSI workshop that I spoke at in North Carolina to today's brilliant lecture at UMass Amherst by Dr. Elinor Ostrom, who is the first and, thus far, only female to receive the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, which she did in 2009.

Dr. Ostrom delivered the 15th Annual Gamble Lecture, entitled, "Thinking About Climate Change as a Commons." In her lecture, she emphasized that we cannot wait for governments to act to reduce environmental emissions and that we must do what we can as individuals, as members of families, and as members of communities. She emphasized that, what is needed, is a new theory of human behavior that can look towards the future so that individuals can realize the impact of their actions on the environment.

She spoke of her research on water resources, irrigation systems, forests, and her work with indigenous people in various countries. She noted that if humans see the impacts of their actions, such, as, for example, what was being done in Sacramento, where one receives bills as to one's household water use, relative to that of others, and illustrated in colorful bar charts, one can then react and change one's use of resources accordingly.

Pricing, in the form of carbon taxes, etc., may not be sufficient to alter people's behavior nor as effective.

What came to me is that we need to utilize sensor networks to inform citizens of the externalities of their actions, whether in terms of environmental impacts, water usage, and even congestion.

She noted also that we must educate students to focus on sustainability, to realize the difference that we can make by walking or biking, rather than driving a car and by setting our thermostats lower.

If we have a stake in nature, including forests, where we may walk, pick flowers and even mushrooms, then we will take care of them.

Local action can collectively make a global impact.

She also emphasized that corporations need to not only be profit-maximizers but to also have additional criteria in their decision-making, something that we have been emphasizing in our research from transportation networks to sustainable supply chain networks.

The opportunities for additional mathematical modeling using integrated tools from operations research and economics are immense.

She spoke with such conviction, energy, and humanism, to an audience that was standing room only and she was born in 1933!

Above I have posted photos from her lecture today and it was truly special to be able to speak with her in person, along with my doctoral student, Min Yu.

After writing the above post, I heard from Dr. Priscilla Nelson of the NJIT, who was in my discussion group on sustainability at the SAMSI workshop. She provided me with a link to a video of Dr. Ostrom's lecture last March at the Resilience 2011 Conference. In the lecture, she does a marvelous job of emphasizing the importance of mathematical models and nested systems as well as game theory. She also emphasized the importance of case studies. Dr. Ostrom's presentation slides from the Resilience Conference can be accessed here.

Keeping Our Blood Supply Chain Safe for Health Care Through Operations Management

My doctoral student, Amir Masoumi, and I have been deeply researching blood supply chains, a supply chain of a highly perishable product, with life-saving properties.

What makes the modeling and analysis of this health care supply chain so challenging is not only its perishability, but also that there is risk associated with its procurement (on bad weather days, for example, potential donors may decide not to give blood whereas during disasters there may be an outpouring of willing donors).

The safety of the blood supply also requires proper testing and, at times, it may be difficult to predict the demand, resulting in shortages, for example, with associated costs. An oversupply of blood, on the other hand, requires proper waste disposal of outdated blood.

There is now a blood supply shortage gripping the United States.

As noted in the Herald, under federal law, whole blood can be stored for up to 42 days. However, some studies have found that patients who receive blood stored even for a couple of weeks are more likely to suffer infections, cardiovascular problems and even organ failure, particularly those who use several units of older blood.

A new paper, published yesterday in the journal Critical Care Medicine, explaining why this is so -- found that stored red blood cells begin to lose the ability to release a key molecule called adenosine-5’-triphosphate (ATP), which helps prevent the cell from sticking to the walls of blood vessels.

However, before researchers determine how to boost levels of ATP in older blood to make such blood safer, it is important to be able to analyze the risk and perishability of blood in its complete supply chain along with the costs which must include potential unmet demand as well as waste.

We now have two papers on this subject, the first, Supply Chain Network Operations Management of a Blood Banking System with Cost and Risk Minimization, Anna Nagurney, Amir H. Masoumi, and Min Yu, focuses on optimizing the operations of the blood supply chain, whereas the second, Supply Chain Network Design of a Sustainable Blood Banking System, Anna Nagurney and Amir H. Masoumi, to appear in Sustainable Supply Chains: Models, Methods and Public Policy Implications, T. Boone, V. Jayaraman, and R. Ganeshan, Editors, Springer, London, England, 2011, in press, demonstrates how to design (or redesign the blood supply chain).

By doing out best to optimize this life-saving, scarce resource, in a holistic manner, we can save lives.

The Daffodil Lectures on Sustainability and the Environment at UMass Amherst Were Terrific!

Last weekend I had the distinct pleasure of attending the Daffodil Lectures at the new Integrated Sciences Building at UMass Amherst. The panel was moderated by Dr. Julie Brigham-Grette of UMass Amherst, who has done a lot of climate research in the Arctic, and consisted of Dr. Raymond Bradley, the renowned climate scientist, who is also of UMass Amherst, Andrew Revkin, a graduate of Brown University, my alma mater, and the founder of the blog Dot Earth, and former New York Times reporter, who is now a Senior Fellow for Environmental Understanding at Pace University in NYC, and Dr. Bron Taylor of the University of Florida, who is a Professor of Religion and Nature.

Dr. Raymond Bradley spoke about the world's population now being at 6.3 billion and increasing at a rate of the addition of the greater Boston area every 2 weeks. He spoke about the associated increases in methane, phosphates, and CO2 and polar bears whose bodies are filled with such man-made toxins as PCBs. He spoke about our need to reenvision land use.

He presented a graphic with a red circle boundary and said that we are pushing the earth beyond sustainability levels. He noted how such man-made inventions as the steam engine, which gave rise to the use of coal, and the internal combustion engine, to the rise of fossil fuels, have yielded a relentless rise in greenhouse gasses over the last century and a half. He noted that it is the cumulative emissions of CO2 and their effects since the Industrial Revolution that matter.

Dr. Bradley put up a quote of Al Gore's, dated December 10, 2007, that said "what were you thinking, why didn't you act." His presentation was very clear and very powerful.

Andrew Revkin (whose godson, by the way, is a UMass Amherst student, and who introduced him) began with saying that we are facing a "super wicked" problem with 9 billion people expected to be inhabiting this earth at the end of the century. In 1800, he said, there were 1 billion humans, and today, in 2010, there are 1 billion teenagers (alone). He spoke of the horrible poverty in parts of the globe and highlighted through a photo of how in Guinea students have to go to an airport parking lot because that is the only place that is sufficiently lit for them to do their homework at night. He showed us a photo of a home in Holland that "floats" since the sea levels are rising and the owners want to be prepared for the worst. He emphasized the paucity of investment over the years in energy research, where we need sociological and technological breakthroughs. He said that this generation is Generation E and that there is no "Planet B" so we should care about our planet.

Dr. Taylor spoke about his worldwide travels and how the natural world can bring deep spirituality to one's life. He talked about his books and especially about the "deep green religion."

There was a music ensemble afterwards and a wonderful table with all sorts of appetizers and desserts. This event was a very fitting tribute to the 10th anniversary of what is known as the Commonwealth College at UMass Amherst.

Above I have included several photos of the panelists.

Never Miss a Good Crisis -- Siemens CEO on Leadership

USA Today has a marvelous article on and interview with Peter Loscher, the CEO of Siemens, a high tech company with over 400,000 employees, which is 162 years old! The article notes that Loscher's leadership is based on his moral compass and that he was hired by Siemens in 2007 to clean up the corruption. His resume is incredible and he served previously as CEO of Aventis Pharma, CEO of GE Healthcare Bio-Sciences, and President of Merck Global Human Health.

In the interview, Peter Loscher talks about growing up in a small Austrian village and of his father telling him to always act ethically and that being a good man will result in a good life.

Today, Siemens is considered to be a role model with Dow Jones ranking the company on its sustainability world index with the highest score of 100 (when it previously had earned a 0).

Loscher (there is an "umlaut" over the "o" in his name) offers this piece of advice: never miss a good crisis. Under his leadership, he certainly "cleaned house," and replaced half of Siemens' 100 top executives. He also emphasizes the importance of being trustworthy and of transparency.

Peter Loscher received his MBA from the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, which is actually the largest business school in Europe. I had the privilege of giving a talk at this university on March 10, 2009, and was hosted by Professor Manfred Fischer, a dear friend, and scholar in regional science. The presentation that I gave was entitled, Synergies and Vulnerabilities of Supply Chain Networks in a Global Economy.

My mother lived in Vienna during part of World War II, as did one of my uncles, so it was very special to visit and to speak at this renowned institution. Clearly, the Vienna University of Economics and Business Adminsitration is doing an outstanding job of educating leaders, as evidenced in Siemens CEO, Peter Loscher. Plus, having had a Distinguished Chaired Fulbright in Innsbruck, Austria, I welcomed a return to that gorgeous country. Of course, it was also wonderful that my Fulbright experience resulted in the matriculation of an Austrian student, Tina Wakolbinger, at the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst. Dr. Wakolbinger became my second PhD student from Europe (with Dr. Stavros Siokos being my first). Dr. Wakolbinger, as Peter Loscher, comes from a small village in Austria, and she is now a Professor at the Fogelman College of Economics and Business Administration at the University of Memphis in Tennessee.