Were the Reviewers of Our Paper in the Audience?

As a rather "seasoned" academic I continue to be amazed and surprised when it comes to the serendipity of research.

I heard the good news that our paper, Securing the Sustainability of Global Medical Nuclear Supply Chains Through Economic Cost Recovery, Risk Management, and Optimization, Anna Nagurney, Ladimer S. Nagurney, and Dong Li, was accepted for publication in the International Journal of Sustainable Transportation, while I was working in my office back in Gothenburg, Sweden.

I knew that my doctoral student, Dong "Michelle" Li, was also scheduled to present this paper at the 2012 INFORMS Phoenix conference. However, given the time difference and that I was very busy in Sweden, I was not certain exactly which day.

I was thinking that perhaps she could update the presentation with this good news.

I was wrong, Michelle had already given  the presentation on Sunday in the Managing Disruptions in Supply Chains session.

So, were the reviewers in the session, since the next day I heard that the paper had been accepted?!

This was Michelle's first INFORMS conference and she had a fabulous time and came back really inspired and energized. Some of the highlights for her (apples don't fall far from the tree) were the WORMS Award luncheon and the Student Chapter Awards ceremony. Michelle was the President of our UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter last year.

Plus, this is her first paper acceptance as a doctoral student, which is great!

Being Spoiled by My Colleagues in Sweden with More Cake and Cookies -- All Because of Research!

The doctoral students here in my group at the School of Business, Economics and Law are very happy when I either get another paper published or accepted for publication since we celebrate on Thursdays at 3PM with cake.

Today we celebrated with cake since my paper, Securing the Sustainability of Global Medical Nuclear Supply Chains Through Economic Cost Recovery, Risk Management, and Optimization, Anna Nagurney, Ladimer S. Nagurney, and Dong Li, was accepted for publication in the International Journal of Sustainable Transportation.

Two Thursdays ago, we celebrated with 2 cakes since I had two papers published and I also brought special treats, which we ate, in addition to the two cakes.

The wonderful secretary here then baked similar cookies and brought them for me, complete with the recipe below.

It will be hard to leave Gothenburg, Sweden, since not only do I get my muse here but a nicer group of colleagues and staff would be hard to find!

Luckily, I will be back!

Thank you, one and all, for such a wonderful visit!

Five Supply Chain Talks by the Supernetwork Team at INFORMS 2012 in Phoenix

One of my doctoral students, Amir H. Masoumi; has already arrived in Phoenix for the INFORMS 2012 Annual Conference. He is taking part in the Future Academicians Colloquium and will also be presenting our pharmaceutical supply chain paper that was co-authored with Min Yu.

Another doctoral student, Dong "Michelle" Li, will be flying to Phoenix today and will be presenting two of our papers, including one on medical nuclear supply chains.

Dr. Zugang "Leo" Liu will be speaking on our paper, which is in press in the Annals of Operations Research, and Dr. Min Yu will be presenting our latest work in the area of humanitarian logistics, which is joint with Dr. Patrick Qiang.

Our presentations at INFORMS 2012 we have now posted on the Virtual Center for Supernetworks website.

Wishing everyone a wonderful INFORMS 2012 Conference!

I won't be in Phoenix (one of only two INFORMS annual conferences that I have missed in many years) because I am on sabbatical now in Gothenburg, Sweden, and next week will be a panelist at the Future Urban Transport conference that is taking place here in Gothenburg.

Although I won't be at INFORMS 2012, I am very pleased that 5 presentations of joint work by our Supernetwork team will be delivered by present and past doctoral students of mine!

The last time that I was in Phoenix was for an INFORMS conference and I was expecting then -- now my daughter is a freshman in college!  At age 3 months she attended her first official INFORMS conference and that was in Boston. She even received a conference name card, which was nice.

How to Celebrate Journal Article Publications

I usually try to motivate my doctoral students with carrots, since sticks belong on trees and in happy dogs' mouths.

Here, in Gothenburg, Sweden, or at least at the School of Business, Economics, and Law at the University of Gothenburg, in my group, which is located in Tower D (consisting of transport and logistics and financial management and some economics folks), there is a tradition that may work as an incentive to do research and publish.

When someone in the group publishes a paper, we celebrate with cake!

Today, we will be celebrating the publication of two of my papers.

I will be bringing additional treats that I have located in one of the wonderful restaurants in Haga, which is close to the business school.

The event takes place at 3PM.

I have been asked to first highlight the contributions in the two papers that I co-authored that acknowledge support from the school where I am now a Visiting Professor of Operations Management.

The first paper, "Competitive Food Supply Chain Networks with Application to Fresh Produce," co-authored with Min Yu, who is now an Assistant Professor at the University of Portland, in Oregon, is in press in the second issue of the European Journal of Operational Research in 2013 and is available online http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0377221712005747

and the second paper, "Medical Nuclear Supply Chain Design: A Tractable Network Model and Computational Approach," co-authored with the other Professor Nagurney, my husband, was just published in the International Journal of Production Economics: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925527312003155   

And now for some photos! 

The event is now over and the cakes and treats were delicious but they were consumed rather quickly.

Our wonderful secretary here, shared the photos belowm which were also sent to a faculty member who is at a conference in Saudi Arabia to get him envious.

 

When the Most Recent Time Feels as Good as the First Time -- Getting a Paper Accepted and Published

I recently received an email message from a former doctoral student of mine that is the kind of message that is a keep-sake. It highlighted milestones in an academic career.


The message included the following, which had been copied to several former and present doctoral students of mine.

When I received your phone calls in my dorm at China, I didn't realize that's one of the biggest decisions in one's life. From the first day at UMASS, the first presentation at Professor's 821 class, the first homework that I ever graded, the first paper, the first conference, the first job interview, the first job offer,...until now the tenure and promotion, every step in my growth records Professor Nagurney's effort. I can't thank you enough, Professor!

I met my best friends in the supernetwork lab which is really like a family. Thank you all for friendship and support, which is my lifelong asset!~~~

This got me thinking -- I hope that, as an academic, one never loses that sense of wonder and, indeed, happiness, at getting another paper accepted for publication and then seeing it in a journal.


Do you recall the time that you received the good news of the acceptance of your first journal article?


My first three journal articles were co-authored with my doctoral dissertation advisor at Brown University, Professor Stella Dafermos, the second female in the world to receive a PhD in Operations Research. We actually had, as our first set of joint publications,  a series of three papers, published, in Mathematical Programming, Transportation Research B, and in Operations Research.

That same year (and only a year after receiving my PhD), I then had a single-authored paper (another first) published in Transportation Research B.

Last week, we heard the good news that a paper that I had written with the other Dr. Nagurney, who is educated in physics, had been accepted for publication. The effort in understanding the scope of the medical nuclear supply chain network problem and issues, which are affecting medical diagnostics, and even security, along with acquiring the data for the problem, had been intense, and, after two revisions, we had done it. The paper integrates operations research and physics for a supply chain network application.

The good news of the paper acceptance made our day and the warm feeling continues and makes the hard work worth it.


I hope that I never lose that feeling -- and wish you all the same.

Looking Forward to the Integrated Risk Management Conference in Operations and Global Supply Chains

I am very much looking forward to the Integrated Risk Management Conference in Operations and Global Supply Chains that begins this weekend at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

This conference is being organized by Professors Mehmet Gumus and Saibal Ray and is co-hosted by the Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University, and the Olin School of Business, Washington University in St. Louis.

According to the conference announcement, this two-day conference features a single track of fourteen talks and six poster presentations that combines technical presentations, industry practices, and discussions on relevant challenges and approaches in the topic area. Detailed information about the conference can be found here with the conference program located here. Those who would like to attend the conference can register before July 30, 2011 (at no registration fee since it is covered by the conference sponsors).

I will be speaking on Medical Nuclear Supply Chain Design: A Tractable Network Model and Computational Approach, co-authored with Professor Ladimer S. Nagurney (my husband, who has a PhD in physics). Our presentation is based on the paper that we recently wrote. This health care topic was also the subject of our published Op-Ed piece.

Our OpEd on Medical Nuclear Supply Chains Published Today

It is important not only to do research but also to speak about it at conferences and at other forums.

There are also topics that one may feel sufficiently passionate about and may wish to disseminate thoughts, ideas, and even research results on to a broader audience. Hence, it is also important for academics to contribute OpEd pieces to newspapers on timely topics.

Medical nuclear supply chains, which impact our healthcare security, are such a topic and their vulnerability needs to be addressed.

There is some movement in the US Congress in this direction but the criticality of such supply chains, which enable both cardiac and cancer diagnostics, needs to be emphasized.

Our OpEd piece on the subject: Viewpoint: Passage of American Medical Isotope Production Act of 2011 will help ensure U.S. nuclear medicine supply chain, was published in today's Springfield Republican newspaper, and may be read here.

We have begun to conduct serious research on the design and redesign of medical nuclear supply chains. Our first study on the subject can be accessed, in pdf format, here.