2024 Award Recipient: Robin Lougee
The winner of the INFORMS Computing Society Distinguished Service Award for 2024 is Robin Lougee. Robin has a long history of direct service to the Society, delivered with warmth, enthusiasm, and knowledge that made ICS stronger and more welcoming to the broad computing community:
- Board member 2002-2005
- Secretary-Treasurer 2003-2005
- Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect 2005-2007
- Chair 2007-2009
- Organizer of ICS sessions for INFORMS Seattle in 2007 (80 sessions)
In addition, she was a co-creator of the Computational Infrastructure for Operations Research (COIN-OR) initiative, which was established in 2004 as a strategic partner of ICS. The goal of the COIN-OR initiative is to accelerate the development and adoption of open-source software for computational operations research, a major goal of ICS itself. She was co-recipient of the 2014 INFORMS Impact Prize for this effort, which has been of major benefit to ICS.
She has also been a member of the Advisory Board for the ICS-associated INFORMS Journal on Computing since 2022.
The 2024 Distinguished Service Award Committee members
- Merve Bodur (University of Edinburgh)
- John Chinneck, Chair (Carleton University)
- Karla Hoffman (George Mason University)
- David Woodruff (University of California, Davis)
2021 Award Recipient: David L. Woodruff, University of California, Davis
Professor David Woodruff has rendered dedicated and outstanding service to the INFORMS Computing Society for over 25 years. His impact began when he was General Chair of the successful INFORMS Computer Science Technical Section (CSTS, the predecessor of ICS) meeting held in Monterey in January 1998 and he edited the associated conference book. This was followed by his leadership as Chair of ICS (2001-2003) and society representative on the INFORMS Subdivision Council.
But among his deepest contributions was his service as Editor-in-Chief of the INFORMS Journal on Computing (2013-2018). Under his leadership, the journal grew in stature, quality, and importance within the INFORMS community. Prior to this, he served the journal as an Associate Editor and the Area Editor for Heuristic Search and Learning.
Dave's continuous dedication to ICS encompassed many other supporting activities: Acting Editor in Chief of the ICS Newsletter for three years, Chair of the ICS Student Paper Award Committee, and a member of the ICS Service Award and the IJoC Test of Time Paper Prize committees. Throughout, Dave was always a moving spirit and enlivened the ICS Business meetings.
We are grateful to Dave for his many years of leadership and dedicated service to ICS, and for his notable contributions to the Society.
The 2021 Distinguished Service Award Committee members are:
- Dick Barr (SMU)
- Kevin Furman (ExxonMobil)
- Ariela Sofer, Chair (GMU)
2019 Award Recipient: Allen Holder
Professor Allen Holder, a long-time member and contributor to ICS, epitomizes what this award was created to recognize: the spirit of selfless volunteerism displayed in the taking on of largely thankless jobs to the benefit of the entire ICS community. One of Allen's earliest contributions was to take over the care and feeding of the Mathematical Programming Glossary from Harvey Greenberg himself and to bring it under the auspices of ICS. This years-long project involved moving the entire glossary to a modern Web platform. In testament to the effectiveness of this work, the glossary still exists today and lives on as the INFORMS Mathematical Programming glossary. Allen was also an important contributor to another years-long effort under the auspices of ICS---the Education Committee, which endeavored to write a detailed report making recommendations for programs wishing to incorporate computational science into their curricula. At the time, that report was considered to have an important impact and is still a relevant reference document today. In addition to these "behind-the-scenes" contributions, Allen was an IJOC Area Editor from mid-2009 (taking over from Harvey) through the end of 2018. The area he edited was called “Computational Biology and Medical Applications” until 2010 when he renamed it “Applications in Biology, Medicine, and Health Care.” These are only some of the many ways in which Allen contributed over the years to the growth and success of ICS, which has remained one of INFORMS' largest and most vibrant societies over a long span of time due to contributions like his. We humbly thank Allen for his many contributions over the years.
Other winners and committees are:
2009-2017