APS Blackwell Prize

Policy

The Blackwell Prize of the INFORMS Applied Probability Society, established in 2023, is awarded annually at the INFORMS Annual Meeting to an individual for fundamental and sustained career contributions within the area of Applied Probability.

Purposes

The Prize serves primarily as a recognition of scholarly innovation, depth, significance, and impact within the area of Applied Probability, but service to the Applied Probability community may also contribute to the award selection. The award is intended to recognize a lifetime career of theoretical and/or applications-driven scholarship within Applied Probability that has had a significant impact on operations research and the management sciences.

Award

The award includes a cash amount of $1,000, a citation certificate, and registration at the INFORMS meeting.

Eligibility

A nominee is eligible for the Blackwell Prize if all the following conditions are satisfied:

  • The nominee must have an outstanding record of fundamental and sustained research contributions (either towards theory and/or applications) within the field of Applied Probability;
  • The research contributions of the nominee must have had a significant impact within the INFORMS Applied Probability community;
  • The nominee cannot have previously received the Blackwell Prize.

Procedures

The prize will be selected by a newly created APS Blackwell Prize committee (separate from the already existing APS Prize Committee). The 2024 Blackwell Prize committee consists of Mor Armony (Chair), Peter Glynn, and David Yao. A complete nomination consists of the following:

  1. A letter of nomination, not exceeding five pages, summarizing the nominee's contributions, with explanations of their importance and impact on the INFORMS Applied Probability community. In some cases, it may be appropriate to also discuss how the nominee’s work is likely to shape future research within the field;
  2. The letter can be co-signed by multiple individuals. The nomination letter can also consist of multiple shorter nomination letters written by different individuals and combined together, so long as the combined length does not exceed five pages;
  3. While the curriculum vita is (strongly) preferred, in cases where the vita may be difficult to obtain, the committee will accept a list of publications selected by the nominator(s) as a substitute.