Newsletter

WORMS News & Newsletter

Newsletters

WORMSNewsletter10-2011.pdf

WORMS Newsletter_2012_op.pdf

Worms Newsletter 2015.pdf

WORMS_Newsletter_2017.pdf

WORMS News

2014

WORMS Joins Informs Connect

WORMS is one of the first to migrate to Informs Connect. Join in the discussion at our new home. 

WORMS Mentorship Network

Would you like to be connected to a mentor who can offer advice on academic or industrial careers, job searches, research directions, work/life balance? We have launched a new initiative to connect mentees and mentors together.

If you are looking for mentorship or are interested in becoming a mentor, or both sign up here

WORMS Childcare Travel Fund

žTo help support parents WORMS has launched an innovative new fund that partially reimburses recipients for up to $200 in costs associated with care for children age 12 years or younger traveling with a parent who is participating in the INFORMS Annual Meeting. žThis award is open to early-career WORMS members, applications are due by September. ž

Student Liaisons

We want to get students more involved in WORMS. žIf you are a student and like to be a student liaison for next year, please get in touch.

2011

Anna Nagurney, the John F. Smith Professor of Operations Management at the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst, and the Director of the Virtual Center for Supernetworks, and Professor Tilman Wolf of the College of Engineering, also of UMass Amherst, have received a three-year $909,794 grant from the National Science Foundation to create a network architecture and protocols to bring greater choice throughout the Internet. The project, "Network Innovation Through Choice," is part of a $2.732 million collaborative NSF grant with the University of Kentucky, North Carolina State University, and the Renaissance Computing Institute of Asheville, NC.

Eric Wolman, currently Treasurer of WORMS, celebrated his 80th birthday this year. Eric has been an active member of WORMS since the 1980s. He won the 2008 INFORMS Moving Spirit Award for his contribution to this Forum. He has and has been a constant and active supporter of the forum and of its officers, especially those new to INFORMS leadership. He has also mentored many of us. Donna Llewellyn describes Eric’s role in her career this way: "Eric is the epitome of a wise and trusted mentor and supporter - he listens intently, asks probing questions, pushes those he mentors to be the best that they can be according to their own definition, not according to his definition... and he is willing to push back and make you think about what you are doing and saying - his attention to the story of how I am living my professional (and personal) life has always made me want to reflect and be sure that it is the right story, one that I am proud of."

Sadan Kulturel-Konak, Associate Professor of Management Information Systems and Coordinator of the Engineering Entrepreneurship Minor at Penn State Berks, was named a recipient of the 2011 Take the Lead Award of the Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania. Each year Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania recognizes outstanding women for their breakthrough leadership and community service at their annual Take the Lead event. Girl Scouts lead the entire program as an emcee, host or award presenter, and gain public speaking and speech writing skills.

The University of Texas at El Paso - Building a Regional Energy and Educational Network (BGREEN)

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded a four-year, $3.2 million grant to The University of Texas at El Paso to oversee a multi-university effort to produce more scientists and engineers who can develop new alternative energy sources and ways to increase energy efficiency. Heidi A. Taboada, assistant professor of Industrial, Manufacturing and Systems Engineering, is the principal investigator of the Building a Regional Energy and Educational Network (BGREEN) project. “Demand for professionals with sustainable energy knowledge is increasing as employers need graduates who can better respond to energy challenges in all professional and business contexts," Dr. Taboada said.

Students Wanted!!

The University of Massachusetts Amherst has received a $3.2 million grant from the NSF Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program to start an interdisciplinary graduate program in Offshore Wind Energy Engineering, Environmental Science, and Policy, with Erin Baker (a member of WORMS) as the director. The new graduate program will train 24 doctoral students over the course of five years in the technology, environmental implications, and social/economic/regulatory challenges of offshore wind farms.

The IGERT grant will support each Ph.D. student for two or three years. The multidisciplinary program will feature 20 faculty members from nine UMass Amherst departments in the College of Engineering, College of Natural Sciences, School of Management, and College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. We are looking for top notch students in IEOR as well as Mechanical, Civil, and Electrical engineering, Environmental science, Biology, Economics, and Planning.

Creating energy from wind is not new, yet growing demands for clean power now has us looking out to sea. Coastal seas and open oceans are breezy by nature, potentially making offshore wind farms an economical source of renewable energy. Nevertheless, offshore wind farms are not without controversy, whether because of changes in the aesthetics of the coastline, potential impacts on navigation, or disturbance to seabirds, fish, and marine mammals. Still, the number of proposed offshore wind farms is growing rapidly and it is becoming clear that the future of offshore wind relies on a holistic, interdisciplinary approach that includes technical assessments and planning, as well as assessments of environmental impacts, regulatory and policy issues, and human dimensions.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Erin Baker, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department, College of Engineering, UMass Amherst, edbaker@ecs.umass.edu

2010

Congratulations to Dr. Brenda Dietrich, an IBM Fellow and Vice President of the Business Analytics and Mathematical Sciences Department at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, who received the 2010 WORMS Award for the Advancement of Women in OR/MS! Call for nominations for the for the Advancement of Women in OR/MS is posted under WORMS Award.

Congratulations to CYNTHIA BARNHART, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering Systems, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who was inducted in the National Academy of Engineering in October, 2010.

Congratulations to SADAN KULTUREL-KONAK, Associate Professor of Management Information Systems and Coordinator of the Engineering Entrepreneurship Minor, Penn State Berks, who was named a recipient of the 2011 Take the Lead Award of the Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania.

ANNA NAGURNEY, the John F. Smith Memorial Professor at the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst, will be giving two keynote talks at conferences in China in May. She will be speaking on "Supernetworks: Opportunities and Challenges for Decision-Making in the 21st Century" at the PAKDD2011 Conference, May 24-27, 2011, in Shenzen, China; http://pakdd2011.pakdd.org/ She will then speak on "Supernetworks in Healthcare and Humanitarian Operations" at the 2011 IEEE Conference on Supernetworks and System Management, May 29-30, 2011 in Shanghai; http://csure.usst.edu.cn/icssm/ Anna is also serving as the Honorary Co-Chair of the latter conference, along with Professor Wang Ying-Luo, Fellow of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

LT LESLIE A. SLOOTMAKER, USN, received the March 2011 MORS/TISDALE award for near-term operational value for her thesis titled “Countering Piracy with the Next Generation Piracy Performance Surface Model”. LT Slootmaker worked to improve the Navy’s Pirate Attack Risk Surface (PARS), a product that predicts the most likely locations for pirate activity in the Somali Basin Region. LT Slootmaker met with US and allied forces combating piracy, recommended changes in the pirate behavior as simulated in PARS, and used simulation experiments to verify the importance of the new behavior model, identify the most important intelligence parameters, and recommend appropriate parameter settings to increase the product’s operational value. She presented her work to NATO, INFORMS and the Winter Simulation Conference, as well as many other interested groups. LT Slootmaker’s advisor is WORMS President-Elect, Eva Regnier.

TINA WAKOLBINGER accepted a position as Professor of Supply Chain Services and Networks at WU, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria.

2009

Congratulations to Dr. Alice Smith, Professor and Chair, Industrial and Systems Engineering Department, Auburn University, who received the 2009 WORMS Award for the Advancement of Women in OR/MS!

2008

Congratulations to Dr. Candace Yano, Professor of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, College of Engineering, and Chair, Haas Operations and Information Technology Management Group, University of California Berkeley, who received the 2008 WORMS Award for the Advancement of Women in OR/MS!

Call for nominations for the pdf 2009 WORMS Award for the Advancement of Women in OR/MS.
 

WORMS Events at the 2008 INFORMS Annual Meeting in Washington, DC:

2007

Congratulations to Dr. Anna Nagurney, John F. Smith Memorial Professor of Finance and Operations Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, who received the 2007 WORMS Award for the Advancement of Women in OR/MS!
WORMS panel discussions at INFORMS-Seattle drew large attendance - Here are the highlights: Dual Careers / pdf Bias
Call for nominations for the 2007 WORMS Award for the Advancement of Women in OR/MS.

2006

Agenda with the Attendee List of the Forum Business Meeting at the INFORMS National Meeting in Pittsburgh, November 2006.

A presentation by President Sila Cetinkaya at the INFORMS National Meeting in Pittsburgh, November 2006.

Call for nominations for the 2006 WORMS Award for the Advancement of Women in OR/MS.

2005

Minutes of the Forum Business Meeting at the INFORMS National Meeting in San Francisco, November 2005.

A presentation by President Pinar Keskinocak at the INFORMS National Meeting in San Francisco, November 2005.

Call for nominations for the 2005 WORMS Award for the Advancement of Women in OR/MS.