In Memoriam: Professor Halim Doğrusöz (1922-2019)
Turkish Operations Research (OR) community is mourning for its pioneer Professor Halim Doğrusöz who passed away on March 9, 2019 at the age of 97. Professor Doğrusöz, a student and colleague of the OR pioneer Professor Russell Ackoff, has always been true to the origins of the OR methodology praising systems thinking, interdisciplinary work, and the scientific method. He dedicated his life to applying the OR methodology to not only the problems of organizations but also to complex societal issues in Turkey.
Professor Doğrusöz established the first OR research group (1965) as a unit of the Scientific and Technical Research Council, the first OR graduate program (1965) and the first OR and Statistics undergraduate program (1975) at the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Turkey. He believed that one of the main responsibilities of a university is to serve the Society by addressing its problems through research. He took this as a mission as the vice Rector and led the efforts to institutionalize applied research in METU in 1972. 18 applied research units were established at METU within the several years following this instituitionalization. Professor Doğrusöz, together with his colleagues, founded the System Sciences Research Institute (SIBAREN) in 1975 and served as its director for many years to apply the OR approach to problems of practice. SIBAREN not only undertook the complex problems of many public and private organizations by interdisciplinary teams, but also served as a school and a laboratory for OR work to faculty members and graduate students, including the authors of these lines.
Professor Doğrusöz, was the founder, first member (with membership number 1), and the first president of the Turkish OR Society (1975). He continued to teach the methodology of OR and interact with faculty and students at METU until recently. He is the ultimate altruistic person we know, who has not turned down any request where he could be of help. Past the age of 90, he was still concerned with the problems of the society and was trying to convince those around him to join forces to address these important issues. His latest concern was about violence and murders against women and how to prevent them.
Those of us who had the opportunity to interact with Professor Doğrusöz have benefitted from his wisdom enormously. However, even those who did not have the privilege to interact with him directly, had the good fortune to be the successors of Professor Doğrusöz who paved the way for OR to become such a popular profession in Turkey.
Professor Doğrusöz's passion for practicing the OR approach in its originality made a big impact in the Turkish academic circles. His determination to conduct applied research has been contagious. This probably has an important impact on the disproportionate popularity of OR in Turkey.
Professor Doğrusöz is a big loss for the OR community and he will be missed very much.
Murat Köksalan and Haldun Süral
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Murat Koksalan
Visiting Professor, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
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