Congratulations to the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter!

The INFORMS Conference in Atlanta, which took place October 26-29, 2025, was fantastic! There were about 7,000 conferees, who enjoyed the scientific presentations plus keynotes and plenaries, many social networking events, tutorials, business meetings, and also award ceremonies. It was wonderful to have participants who are students, academics, and practitioners from around the globe!

On Monday evening of the conference, the INFORMS Chapter Awards event took place. As the Faculty Advisor to the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter since 2004 (when the Chapter was founded), I was delighted to see the Chapter recognized with the Cum Laude Award for its activities.

The evening began with welcoming remarks from Elena Gerstmann, the Executive Director of INFORMS, and Mark E. Lewis, the President-Elect of INFORMS.

Then we had the pleasure of hearing from Vinod Cheriyan, the Chapter Representative to the Subdivisions Council of  INFORMS, and listening to the dynamic keynote by Sina Ansari.

The students were thrilled to receive the award plaque and we took a group photo.

This Student Chapter is an outstanding collaboration between PhD students in Operations Management at the Isenberg School of Management and Industrial Engineering PhD students at UMass Amherst. All who are interested in Operations Research and Analytics are welcome to join. Last year's Chapter President was Ismael Pour and this year's Chapter President is Samira Samadi.

For more information about the Chapters, its Officers, and activities, please visit the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter website: https://websites.umass.edu/umassinf/

It was wonderful to have even a former member, now a Professor, Dr. Heng Chen of Kansas State University, join us.

Congratulations to the students! We plan on holding a celebration on campus soon.

A Big Thank You and Congratulations to the Montreal Operations Research Student Chapter

The invitation arrived on April 22, 2019 - towards the end of the Spring semester.

The event that I was invited to speak at was to take place on May 15, 2019, as part of the Optimization Days conference in Montreal, Canada. The conference was at HEC.

Although the date was just a few days past the UMass Amherst graduation ceremonies as well as the POMS conference in Washington DC, I accepted quickly, since it was to celebrate the 3rd anniversary of the Montreal Operations Research Student Chapter. I am a big proponent and supporter of INFORMS Student Chapters and have been the Faculty Advisor to the UMass Amherst one for 15 years (that translates to 30 semesters of activities, including hosting of speakers). The Montreal Chapter has over 270 members across multiple universities in the area. It was co-founded by a group of students, including  Hyame Alameddine and (now) Dr. Carlos Zetina, both from Concordia University. Dr. Zetina was the recipient of the INFORMS Judith B. Liebman Award.

The invitation, which came from Hyame Alameddine, the Chapter's Vice President, said, in part:

Dear Prof. Nagurney,

On behalf of the Montreal Operations Research Student Chapter (MORSC), we would like to invite you to Optimization Days <https://symposia.cirrelt.ca/JOPT2019/en/home>  2019, Montreal on May 15, 2019, to deliver the keynote addressing a topic of your choice for our third-anniversary event which we will celebrate during Optimization Days. Given your pioneering work in operations research; we hope you can honor us with your presence and words as we present our chapter's achievements and list of upcoming events to our members, industry partners, well-known Montreal researchers and representatives of our umbrella institutions. Our organization would be happy to cover the costs associated with your travel and accommodation.

Established in May 2016, MORSC is a multi-university, multidisciplinary, graduate student association chartered under the Canadian Operations Research Society (CORS) and the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). Our mission is to create a collaborative community of Montreal graduate students working on Operations Research topics. Our emphasis is on knowledge sharing and networking among members from various disciplines. We organize tutorials, workshops and panel discussions for students to stay up to date on the field. We also organize student research seminars in collaboration with GERAD and CIRRELT for students to showcase their work and a speaker series for members to learn from highly respected experts in the field. We have created our website (www.mtl-students.com>) that serves as a reference for upcoming events and as an online library of materials on Operations Research (www.mtl-students.com/archive>). In 2017, MORSC received the INFORMS 2017 Student Chapter Annual Award at the cum laude level  and in 2018, it received the INFORMS 2018 Student Chapter Annual Award at the Magna cum laude level.
 
I offered several topics that I could speak on and they selected the following:

My presentation can be downloaded here. Speaking to this group, which has achieved an immense amount during 3 years, was a great honor, and I wanted to congratulate them and to offer my support. Coincidentally, the first conference that I ever attended as a PhD student was in Montreal and it was with my Brown University PhD dissertation advisor, Dr. Stella Dafermos. And, amazingly, I got to stay in the very same hotel, The Terrasse Royale!

The attention to detail was extraordinary, with posters disseminated about my talk, a delicious cake prepared, and even a request for questions from me about my presentation, with prizes!

 My questions to the audience (I was delighted that even undergraduates came):

 1. What city was the venue of the first conference that Anna Nagurney attended as a PhD student?

2. Which of the following are NOT part of the math academic genealogy of Stella Dafermos and Anna Nagurney:

Maxwell, Galileo, Laporte, Newton?

3. The famous Braess paradox (1968) paper was written in what language?

4. Name TWO perishable products in healthcare.

5. What was the name of the best selling cholesterol reducing drug sold by Pfizer that lost its patent rights in 2011?

Bonus question:

What brand of European chocolates are sold at the nearby Royal Terrasse Hotel in Montreal?

After my presentation, I presented the Chapter with a birthday card and certificate and they presented me with a lovely plaque (so thoughtful and so appreciated).

 

Also, at the event, many students were recognized for their great writing and papers!

Above I am standing with the Chapter Officers as well as the Chapter's Faculty Advisor, Professor Daria Terekhov. Very cool that, among the officers, is a former classmate of my PhD student, Deniz Besik - Başak Tozlu.

The cake was as delicious as it was beautiful!

Many thanks also to the excellent photographers! The group photo is a very special memento. I remember fondly many selfies taken with the expert - Dr. Carlos Zetina at INFORMS conferences!

Also, it was a delightful surprise to see  Dr. Alelsandr Kazachkov there (the recipient of the 2018 ICS Best Student Paper Prize, whose committee I chaired), Professor Michel Gendreau, and a University of Maryland  Smith School colleague - Professor Raghavan. I also saw Professor Gilbert Laporte's photo on a nice screen - he was recently elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Sorry to have missed Professor Hani Mahmassani, who was a plenary speaker.

And, of course, I had to purchase Leonidas (Belgian) chocolates in the shop at my hotel to being back to Amherst!

Also, I had some lovely long walks in the area.

Congratulations to the MORSC Chapter Officers and members on all of your achievements and thank you for the outstanding hospitality - you set new standards! Wishing you all much continuing professional and personal success.

Great Time Speaking at the University of Michigan on Game Theory and Disaster Relief

I'd like to thank the INFORMS Student Chapter at the University of Michigan, its fabulous Chapter Officers and members, Professors Marina Epelman and Mariel Lavieri, and the INFORMS Speaker Program, for making my visit to the University of Michigan so memorable and wonderful! It was a pleasure to speak at the Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering (IOE).

I had been invited by the Chapter President, Gian-Gabriel Garcia, last Spring, and due to too many engagements at that time, we settled on the date of October 5 for my talk.

This was my first time at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor so I was very much looking forward to presenting my work on game theory network models for disaster relief.

The trip on Delta from Bradley airport to Detroit was smooth and comfortable (although for some reason I got assigned a middle seat), and I was picked up in a big black SUV limo at the airport and then driven to my hotel. The chauffeur had been to the UMass Amherst graduation in May 2018 with his children since he had a nephew graduating (and his niece also graduated from UMass Amherst) so this was clearly a good sign! He shared with me how his children enjoyed the delicious food at UMass (indeed, we have been ranked #1 in this dimension for three years in a row).

My hosts had organized a delightful schedule for me, beginning with a pickup yesterday morning by Professor Mariel Lavieri, and a session with interested students. I was actually speaking in their diversity seminar series.

The students, which included even an undergrad student, along with graduate students plus a graduate student who had driven from Wayne State University and was a UMass Amherst alum (rather wonderful, I must say), came up with individual questions that they were interested in my answers to and Professor Lavieri wrote them down on a white board as below.

The questions were excellent - professors could stay for the first 30 minutes and then were asked to leave so the students could engage in further discussions. The hour flew by much too quickly. It was a treat to meet face to face doctoral students that I had been following through Twitter: in addition to the Chapter President Gian-Gabriel Garcia, I met Emily Tucker,  Lauren Steimle, and Karmel Shehadeh and later in the day - Adam VanDeusen and Ann aWhite.

Then, after perhaps a 5 minute break, it was time for my seminar and I have posted my presentation slides here.


It was an honor to have Professor Brian Denton, the 2017 President of INFORMS, come to my talk. He is now the Chair of the IOE Department and I also had a chance to speak with him later in the afternoon..

Many thanks to Lauren Steimle for sharing the photos below.

During my talk I mentioned my new book, which had been shipped and was supposedly had been delivered to the Isenberg School according to the publisher, Springer, while I was in Michigan (still have not seen the hardcopy).

Lunch was delicious and was served in the IOE building, which has to be one of the most beautiful engineering buildings I have ever been in, complete with artwork and beautiful decorations plus views. Many alums were back for Homecoming events.

It was wonderful to also see Professors Amy Cohn, Romesh Saigal, and Stephen Pollock plus Professor Larry Seiford. Professor Seiford,  who had been a colleague of mine at UMass Amherst before going to NSF and then to the University of Michigan, treated me to a cappuccino that he made!

I had the pleasure of listening (while we ate lunch) to Dr. Robert Sargent of Syracuse University reflect on his career in simulation and he was given the alumni award from Professor Bran Denton.

After the Q&A I got to meet Professor Sargent's daughter, who works for Intel, and just happens to be a UMass Amherst alumna in Industrial Engineering & Operations Research.

It is quite a special, wonderful academic OR world, I must say.

Thanks also to Professors Siqian Shen and Ruiwei Jiang for a great conversation after the guest lecture.

It was hard to say good-bye because there was still so much to discuss and I thank the students that have reached out to me even after my return.

And, to make a perfect visit even more perfect, although my flight from Detroit was supposedly fully booked, I got switched to a comfort aisle seat from a middle seat and just behind business class - thank you, wonderful Delta agent! For those of you who have not been to the University of Michigan (I have quite a few colleagues and even neighbors with Michigan degrees), it is worth the trip. The Detroit Airport is also a hidden gem with great restaurants and shops and an elevated, quiet red tram zipping past the gates.

The present and future of Operations Research are in good hands with the outstanding student leaders and scholars at the Department IOE at the University of Michigan. I did miss not seeing Professor Mark Daskin, but he had told me while we were at CORS in Halifax last summer, that he would be on sabbatical, and Professor Jon Lee was away at the US Naval Academy.

Also, a BIG thanks to the staff of the Department of IOE for their hospitality and for making all the logistical connections for me.

We Celebrated a Great Semester for the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter with a Fabulous Party!

In academic circles this is a very busy time of the year with the end of the Fall semester upon us, final exams ahead of us, and with both faculty and students finishing up numerous projects and classwork. 

At the same time, one needs to celebrate accomplishments of the wonderful community that is the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter! I have had the privilege and fun of being its Faculty Advisor since 2004, which means that I have seen many of our Operations Research and Management Science students graduate with their PhDs and some are even Full Professors now (Dr. Tina Wakolbinger, for example, who was my PhD student and helped to found the chapter in 2004).

This semester, the student chapter hosted spectacular speakers: Dr. Shannon Roberts, Dr. Renata Konrad, and Dr. Dmytro Matsypura, and  began an exciting initiative of establishing a UMass INFORMS youtube channel, which now has two videos of interviews with the latter two speakers. The interviews, thus far, have been conducted by this year's Chapter President, Deniz Besik, and last year's President, Pritha Dutta, with technological assistance in videotaping and video production provided by Rodrigo Mercado and Mojtaba Salarpour. Another highlight this semester was having the chapter recognized with a Magna Cum Laude Award from INFORMS at the Annual Conference in Houston, Texas, October 22-25, 2017!

Yesterday, our wonderful end of the semester party took place at the Isenberg School. The terrific Chapter Officers, led by Deniz Besik, prepared the lovely poster below announcing the party.

In my "spare" time (while chairing a faculty search committee, finishing up two papers and working on another one, plus getting ready for a dissertation proposal defense, in addition to teaching and various other service commitments and writing letters for 5 job candidates), I was getting ready for the party.

I managed to bake some goodies:

and my husband, after spending most of the day at his Engineering School's student design project presentations,  helped to arrange and heat up the pierogies/varenyky and the sausage, which are always very popular. He also helped me to carry the food to the Isenberg School from our car:

The students had extended personal invitations to many faculty and the turnout was fabulous. Since the students are operations researchers, they are also excellent when it comes to the logistics of  procuring various dishes and refreshments for the party and even had a special cake!

Faculty and students  came from my Operations and Information Management Department, including the Department Chair, Dr. Agha Iqbal Ali,  and my colleagues: Dr. Ahmed Ghoniem and Dr. Senay Solak, as well as from the College of Engineering from the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department, including Dr. Ana Muriel, Dr. Erin Baker, and Dr. Hari Balasubramanian,  and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and from Computer Science! It was very special to also see Dr. Peter Haas, one of our newest faculty members, who spent decades at IBM, is an INFORMS Fellow, and is now at UMass Amherst!  Given that both Computer Science and the College of Engineering are on the opposite side of the UMass Amherst campus from the Isenberg School, and that it was quite cold yesterday, the great attendance speaks to the special community that the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter is part of and has also helped to build. The students at the party are from the US, Mexico, Turkey, China, Greece, Scotland, Iran, Pakistan,  India, Sierra Leone,  and Iran - a true United Nations.

 

The camaraderie was fabulous as were the appetites.

A big thank you to the amazing UMass Amherst INFORMS Student  Chapter Officers for such a warm and fun event! Below is one of my favorite selfies ever, thanks to Destenie Nock!

Best of luck to everyone on a great end of the Fall semester and early wishes for a Fantastic New Year!