What Makes a Great Teacher

Since returning from a month in Sweden where I was working as a Visiting Professor at the University of Gothenburg, despite it being early summer, there has been a flurry of activity.

As my colleagues, who are professors and academics,  note, summer is not a time that faculty "don't work." On the contrary, we are busy doing research, writing and revising papers, preparing talks for conferences, designing new courses, working with graduate students, and reviewing papers (I hope that the general public gets the message), just to start.

Monday night, I flew back from Europe to Boston Logan and this week (I think that it was the great food and beauty of Sweden that inspired me) I managed to revise two papers and to take part in a 3 hour comprehensive oral exam for a doctoral student.

When I walked into my office at the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst I was surprised to find not only a huge framed poster of my recent Spotlight Scholar award, which I quickly donated to the school since it had a great photo of some of my students, and, without students, being an academic has limited purpose. I had been told that a student had nominated me for this award, which makes it extra special.

I also found an envelope on my desk and, when I opened it, there was an American Greetings card from a student that had just graduated with a degree in Operations Management and had been in my new Humanitarian Logistics and Healthcare course this past spring.

The card had a quote by Henry David Thoreau on it, "To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts," and, in the card, the former student had written a letter which concluded with "I truly can't thank you enough and will be forever grateful." I am still carrying around the card and so much appreciate the thoughtfulness behind his extra effort.


Early this morning, I picked up my Association for Women in Mathematics  (AWM) July-August Newsletter and, as is typical of this great publication, once I have a look at it, I have to read it cover to cover. In it was a beautiful essay by Professor Alan Sultan of Queens College in NYC entitled: "Dedicated to Estelle: Teachers Do Make a Difference." In his essay, Sultan writes about his math teacher, Estelle Gurin, whom he first met as a 12 year old student of hers.  He wrote about how her enthusiasm and love for her subject -- math -- brought out the curiosity in him, and how she inspired him, who had many family problems at home, to work hard and to take responsibility for his actions. He ended up going to college even though his family told him: "There are no bums in our family," since they clearly had no understanding of the value of education.

Sultan went on not only to finish college on a full scholarship but also then got  his PhD in Math. He reestablished contact with his former teacher, who, of course, immediately recognized him.

He writes: "Estelle changed my life. In my classroom, I always try to emulate her. I bounce around, just as she did. I try to teach with great enthusiasm, and excitement." A few years after Professor Sultan received a message through a third party from a former student stating that it was because of him he went on for a PhD, and he has continued to receive such messages from former students.

Estelle Gurin passed away on March 16, 2012, shortly after her 95th birthday.

Whether on the elementary school level, high school, college, or university level, great teachers do make a difference.

The Beauty of Stockholm and a Thanks to the Royal Institute of Technology

I returned recently to Amherst, Massachusetts from Sweden and have become a bicontinental citizen since I now also have a visiting faculty appointment at the University of Gothenburg, which is in Sweden's second largest city.

During my recent month-long stay in Sweden, I had an opportunity to visit Stockholm, and to speak at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH). My wonderful host was Professor Lars-Goran Mattsson, who is the head of the Deoartment of Transport Science. Sweden is supporting research in transportation and logistics and it is wonderful to see the research community flourishing. The transportation infrastructure in Sweden is also fabulous and I never tire of seeing the trams, ferries, and trains plus the wonderful pedestrian walkways and bicycle lanes.

Despite my seminar taking place on June 18, 2012, which was only a few days before what the Swedes call midsommar and which they take very seriously because it marks the beginning of their summer, the attendance at my talk was great. I even got to see Dr. Dr. PO Lindberg (this is not a typo -- Lindberg did successfully defend his second doctoral dissertation at KTH on June 1, 2012). The photo above is of the three of us after my seminar on perishable product supply chains in health care.

Prior to my seminar, I was treated to a sumptious lunch at KTH. The Swedes are known for their delicious fish, chicken, and even pancake dishes (I'll feature desserts later in this post.)

Having lived in Stockholm, on three different occasions, when my daughter was 2, 4, and 7, it was great to have my husband and daughter with me in Stockholm.

Beauty never fails to inspire. The photos below are of the breathtaking architecture and natural beauty of Stockholm.

And, as promised, below I have posted photos of desserts in Stockholm, the second one below in the form of a dessert, which was made of shrimp and lettuce and I found at one of the train station cafes.

Back now in Amherst, with all the wonderful experiences in Sweden as part of me, I have actually been enjoying revising papers, fortified with images and memories of Sweden.

Thank you, KTH, and, of course, thanks to the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg!

A Photo Essay of Gothenburg, Sweden to Capture the Memories

I made it yesterday evening from Gothenburg, Sweden through Amsterdam Schiphol airport on Delta/KLM and had wonderful seatmates on both legs of my flight. On the first leg,  I set next to a chemical engineer who received her degree from Chalmers and was going on a business trip to The Netherlands and, on the second leg (the long one over the Atlantic), I sat next to an electrical engineer from Gothenburg, who also had received his degree from Chalmers, and  who was going for training in Boston. He works on big data and visualization so our conversation flowed.

Both confirmed one theme that I have been writing about on this blog for the past month from Sweden where I have been living part-time this year as a Visiting Professor -- work-life balance is not an issue in Sweden due its parental leave policies and other benefits.

I thought it appropriate (and somehow we made it through Logan despite the enhanced security since President Obama was also in Boston), to capture some of the special images of Gothenburg, Sweden  with recent photos.

The photos  speak for themselves. The above joke one was taken in one of the numerous cafes in this city.

No wonder Scandinavians are considered to be the happiest people on earth.

Supernetwork Center Associates to Speak in Orlando, Florida

Summer is a time that academics from around the globe typically do a lot of traveling, writing, regenerating themselves, and speak at conferences.

Next week, several of the Supernetwork Center Associates will be traveling to Orlando, Florida to speak at the 9th AIMS Conference on Dynamical Systems, Differential Equations and Applications, for which Professor Patrizia Daniele of the University of Catania in Italy has organized a special session.

The special session is SS58 and it is on Variational Analysis and Equilibrium Problems.

The papers presented in this special session will include research on supply chain networks and corporate financial risks by Professor Jose M. Cruz of the University of Connecticut and Professor Zugang "Leo" Liu of Penn State University at Hazleton, on electric supply chains  by Patrizia, as well as a paper by her with Professors Fuminori Toyasaki of York University in Canada and Tina Wakolbinger of the Vienna University of Economics and Business on economic equilibrium problems with nonlinear constraints.  Tina will also be presenting a paper of ours on electronic waste flows, co-authored with Dr. Toyasaki and her doctoral student, Thomas Nowak.

 It is great to see our academic genealogical tree growing.

Even Professor Stephen Robinson of the University of Wisconsin will be speaking in this session. There will also be other colleagues from Italy and from Canada so it will be a terrific reunion for some members of our Virtual Center for Supernetworks.

I sometimes refer to our Supernetwork Team as a mini - United Nations because of  the many different countries of origin of the Center Associates (Cape Verde, Italy, Ukraine, Canada, China, Greece, India, Iran, and even the US) and  how well we work together and collaborate (perhaps we do this better than the UN).

I will be missing this conference, however, since I am packing my bags and will be returning soon to the US, having spent most of the month of June in my new appointment as a Visiting Professor of Operations Management at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.

Coincidentally, tonight is the England vs. France soccer match in Euro 2012,  and I spoke with Patrizia the other day and recalled fondly how we were at a conference in Erice, Sicily, back in 2006, when Italy beat France in the World Cup and the festivities I will never forget. Somehow I managed to fly back on Alitalia to Boston the day after and all went smoothly (I even got upgraded since I can speak soccer and this helps).

Patrizia will be watching the soccer game tonight before she flies to the US and I will be doing exactly the same.

Women and Men Can Have It All But Maybe We All Need to Move to Sweden

You may have seen the image of the child in a suitcase.

The article by Anne-Marie Slaughter, "Why Women Still Can't Have It All," in the Atlantic Monthly,  in which the photo was featured, has created an explosion of discussions in the blogosphere, in the New York Times,  and has reached me in Sweden, where I am spending the month of June as a Visiting Professor in Gothenburg.

Let me say, at the onset, that I am an academic, a wife, and a mother, and felt Slaughter's pain in missing her children while she served for two years in Washington DC in the State Department, on leave from her tenured faculty appointment at Princeton University. In her article, she eloquently writes about her teenage son's difficulties in school and growing up issues and attributes part of his difficulties to her absence during the week for two years while she served in government and was, in effect, a weekend mom, while her husband, also a tenured professor at Princeton, was in charge of the home base.

In her article,  she points out the pressures of face-time (being in the office early and staying late), the necessity of heavy travel for professional success, and cites studies and quotes from other highly successful professional women, including Facebook's Sheryl Strandberg, who has also recently "come out" in discussing work-life issues as a mother and highly visible female executive. I might add that I have been on panels to discuss work-life balance issues as part of special sessions organized by Women in Operations Research and the Management Sciences (WORMS), which is a forum of the professional society INFORMS.

Being now a Visiting Professor in Sweden, and soon beginning an academic sabbatical, I have gained a lot from living abroad. My husband and daughter had a chance to come visit me for two weeks here in Gothenburg and their insights and observations have added to what may be some solutions.


If only the US would listen and be willing to change.

We are now in the midst of celebrating midsommer, which is actually the beginning of summer, and although I am in my office (after taking a long walk through one of my favorite parks here in Gothenburg) the Swedes are on holiday.

Swedes, in my opinion, have solved the work-life balance issues for both males and females. Even my daughter noticed how many men are pushing baby carriages and are escorting young children around the city and in the parks and playgrounds. The Swedes offer extensive parental leave packages for both males and females and the expectation is that both parents will take advantage of them and these are not just for infants.

My colleagues here at the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg who have young children, are on parental leaves which are very flexible. One male colleague is coming in only 1 day a week, for example.

There are wonderful after school programs and a colleague here who has a disabled daughter brought me to the lovely school that takes care of her after the official school day is over with. Also, families get a monthly allowance from the state for their children (and we did, too, when we lived in Stockholm when my daughter was 2 years old.)

I have met numerous successful females here, with children, who have high level positions in academia, commute to work (if only we had the trains, trams, and busses in the US that Sweden has), and even have farms with horses.

Plus, as I have been told, the Swedes take their vacations seriously and have multiple weeks of vacation. Vacation is for public health and must be taken. People are more productive when they have a chance to relax and to refresh themselves. Also, with the Swedish labor laws, there is a lot of job security.

Many of my colleagues who are fathers leave their offices to pick up their children and do it cheerfully.

People in Sweden are very happy as even a recent United Nations study has shown.

To see the working conditions and benefits in Sweden, just have a look at this official brochure.

More expats are interested in moving back to Sweden for their children and, just this past week, I met one of them, who is a professor in North America, and is interested in returning  because of the quality of life here.

Swedes know that there is a time for work and a time for play.

Yesterday, for example, in downtown Gothenburg, just in front of the art museum, there was a free MTV World Concert that I attended for about two hours, which was fabulous. It was for families and all ages were in the audience, which consisted of about 20,000 people. I stood and chatted next to a female who is in her 70s who had seen Bruce Springsteen, the Beatles, and Elton John in concert in Gothenburg and told me that Springsteen has a lot of Swedish friends and loves to go fishing here.

Rest in Peace, Professor William Cooper, a Giant in Operations Research and the Management Sciences

I have just returned from lunch in Gothenburg, Sweden, where a job candidate today is being interviewed for a faculty position in Operations Research at the School of Business, Economics and Law. At the lunch following his presentation, I learned that he was in the last linear programming class ever taught by Professor George Dantzig, of Stanford University, so we had some nostalgic  remembrances.

I returned to my office at the University of Gothenburg to learn that Professor William Cooper of the University of Texas passed away yesterday, June 20, 2012. Hence, another titan of our field has passed away.

The obituary on the UTAustin website speaks of Professor Cooper and his truly amazing life, from him being a high school dropout to a revolutionary in business education.

When Professor Bill Cooper turned 96 years of age, I wrote about his kindness. He sent me a personal, typed up congratulatory letter when I was appointed the John F. Smith Memorial Professor at the Isenberg School of Management, which hangs in my home office as inspiration.

At age 96, Professor Cooper, although officially retired, would still come to work, and said that he wanted to die while living and not from a cold or from pneumonia.

He was amazing, as was his research output in terms of breadth and depth, with many seminal papers with his longtime collaborator, Abe Charnes, who predeceased him by several years. Much of his career was spent at Carnegie Mellon University.

 Interestingly, according to the UTAustin obituary:  At age 66 most people are thinking of retirement. At that age in 1980 Cooper started on a whole new leg of his career. George Kozmetsky, then dean of UT’s College and Graduate School of Business, hired Cooper as the Foster Parker Professor of Management, Finance and Accounting. With a nod to Cooper’s broad research interests, colleagues joked that his title naturally would encompass three departments.

Coincidentally, last night, I was at a dinner over a senior administrator's home outside of Gothenburg, and it was a magical evening. Her mother had worked at UTAustin and I spoke of many colleagues there as well as of George Kozmetsky and his IC2 Institute at which I had attended a conference and had even been out to his Texas ranch.

Always a gentleman and a scholar, Professor Bill Cooper, we will miss you!

You have left a tremendous legacy -- thank you.

New Book on Sustainable Supply Chains and RIO + 20

While riding the train back to Gothenburg from Stockholm yesterday afternoon, I devoured my copy of the International Herald Tribune, which had a beautifully written OpEd piece by Gro Harlem Brundtland, Earth Agonistes. To those of you who are passionate about the environment and sustainability, Brundtland needs no introduction since not only is she a former prime minister of Norway but she was also the chair of the committee that produced the UN report published in 1987, Our Common Future, which is now commonly referred to as the Brundtland report and which helped to define sustainability.

Today the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development or RIO + 20 begins.

In her OpEd, Brundtland states that: The proposed Sustainable Development Goals, if aligned with the latest science, offer the prospect for a viable and equitable future for humanity. 

Like no other generation before, we can choose the type of future that we will leave to the next generation. A transition to a safe and prosperous future is possible, but will require the full use of humanity’s extraordinary capacity for innovation and creativity. 

Real leadership is required now to tackle these systemic issues. We therefore call upon world leaders to move beyond aspirational statements and exercise a collective responsibility for planetary stewardship, seizing the opportunity offered by the Rio 2012 summit to set our world on a sustainable path. 

With excellent timing, Springer has announced the publication of a new book, "Sustainable Supply Chains: Models, Methods and Public Policy Implications," edited by Tonya Boone, Vaidyanathan Jayaraman, and Ram Ganeshan and the Table of Contents can be downloaded here.


Our paper on the design of sustainable blood supply chain networks with a focus on medical waste management is the fifth chapter in this volume, which is volume 174 in the Springer International Series in Operations Research & Management Science.

My book with Ding Zhang, "Projected Dynamical Systems and Variational Inequalities with Applications," is the second book in this series.

Let's hope that RIO + 20 results in truly transformative ideas and partnerships.