We are proud to announce the winner of the 2019 Kuhn Award. Since 2005, in each year, Naval Research Logistics gives a publication award, the Harold W. Kuhn Award, to the paper selected as the very best from among all those published over the past three years in the journal. The inaugural 2005 Kuhn Award initiated by Prof. David Simchi-Levi was given to: "The Hungarian Method for the Assignment Problem" by Harold W. Kuhn.
Among about 120 papers published in NRL during the previous three years from 2016 to 2018 inclusive, the editorial board of Associate Editors nominated 18 papers. This year's Award Committee of Prof. Gad Allon (chair), Özalp Özer and Michal Tzur selected the paper "Transit vessel scheduling", by Dr. Ir. F.J. <g class="gr_ gr_60 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_disable_anim_appear ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="60" data-gr-id="60">Sluiman</g>, Naval Research Logistics 64(3), 225-248, 2017, to receive the 2019 Kuhn Award.
The nomination by Prof. Gilbert Laporte says "[t]his paper describes a transit scheduling algorithm to limit the negative effects on cargo volume throughput in two-way waterways under separation distance constraints. The author has developed a comprehensive and realistic model for the problem, as well as a complex yet clearly described algorithm that runs in polynomial time with respect to the number of ships. This algorithm was applied to two data sets from the Sunda Strait in Indonesia, and from the strait of Istanbul. A third example relates to waterways having junctions with high collision risk, such as is the case in the Inland Sea of Japan. The results convincingly show that the proposed methodology can readily be applied to complex environments and yield tangible benefits."
All past winners of the award are featured on the webpage dedicated to the award on NRL's website at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal/15206750/homepage/harold_w_kuhn_award.htm.
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Ming Hu
Professor
Rotman School of Management
University of Toronto
Editor-in-Chief, NRL
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