INFORMS Open Forum

Dear colleagues,

We are delighted the announce we are now accepting nominations for the 2026 INFORMS ENRE (Energy, Natural Resources, Environment & Sustainability) Awards: 

The deadline for all 2026 ENRE best paper award submissions is June 22, 2026. Please see the guidelines for each award below. Please submit all nominations via the central ENRE Best Paper Awards Nomination Form. We look forward to receiving your nominations. 

Early Career Best Paper Award:

Committee Chair: Chiara Lo Prete (chiaraloprete@psu.edu), Penn State University

The ENRE Early Career Best Paper Award is presented annually at the INFORMS Annual Meeting to one or more young researcher(s) for authoring an outstanding paper related to the theory and/or application of operations research-management science methods to a problem in energy, natural resources, or the environment. The award serves as a recognition of promising young researchers who are at the beginning of their academic or industrial careers.

Eligibility Criteria:

The author(s) and the work must satisfy the following conditions to be eligible for the award.

• None of the authors may have been awarded his/her terminal degree more than six calendar years prior to January 1, 2026.
• There is no requirement of publication; however, if the paper is published, then it must not have been published before January 1, 2022.
• The topic of the paper must belong to one or more of the fields of energy, natural resources, or the environment.
• The prize may be awarded only once in a lifetime to any individual; thus, no author of a nominated paper may be a previous recipient of the ENRE Early Career Best Paper Award.

Submission Requirements:

We encourage ENRE members to either submit their own papers or nominate papers written by others.

ENRE membership is a requirement for the nominator, but not for the nominee. 

For an Early Career Best Paper nomination, please fill out the central ENRE Best Paper Awards Nomination Form by June 22, 2026, to:

1. Verify the eligibility of the author and the nominated paper

2. Upload the electronic version of the paper (pdf format)

The winner(s) will give a short presentation of the winning paper in the ENRE Awards Session during the 2026 INFORMS Annual Meeting. The presenter must register for the conference and will be responsible for the associated travel and registration expenses. The award includes an official certificate from INFORMS.

Student Best Paper Award

Committee Chair: Elina Spyrou (evangelia.spyrou@imperial.ac.uk), Imperial College London

This award is given annually to a paper addressing energy, environmental, or natural resource issues and authored by a student. All students (undergraduate, MS, PhD) conducting research related to energy, environment, or natural resource issues (including theory, OR/MS methods, or applications) are encouraged to apply. Students do not need to be ENRE members to be eligible for the competition, however membership is encouraged. Publication of the paper is not a requirement. The submitted papers will be reviewed by a panel of judges and the Student Best Paper Award Committee of ENRE. The award includes an official certificate from INFORMS and a $400 honorarium.

Eligibility Criteria:

· Student must be currently enrolled in a graduate/undergraduate program of a university.

· Student must be the first author and main contributor of the paper, although faculty members or other mentors can be co-authors.

· Student must be presenting a talk at the 2026 INFORMS Annual Meeting.

· Student must not have received a previous ENRE Student Best Paper Award.

Submission requirements:

We encourage ENRE members to submit their paper or nominate papers written by others.

For an ENRE Student Best Paper nomination, please fill out the central ENRE Best Paper Awards Nomination Form by June 22, 2026, to:

1. Verify the eligibility of the student and the nominated paper

2. Upload the electronic version of the paper [formatting requirements: pdf file, 30 pages or less including references and appendices, double-spaced, with 11-point font and 1-inch margins all around]

3. Upload a letter from the mentor/supervisor/faculty co-author highlighting the contributions of the student to the paper.

The winner will give a short presentation of the winning paper in the ENRE Awards Session during the 2026 INFORMS Annual Meeting. The student must register for the conference and will be responsible for the associated travel and registration expenses.

Best Publication Awards:

These awards are given annually to outstanding refereed journal articles in three major areas: (1) Energy, (2) Environment and Sustainability, and (3) Natural Resources.

ENRE Best Publication Award – Environment and Sustainability

Committee Chair: Ali Fattahi (ali.fattahi@jhu.edu), Johns Hopkins University

ENRE Best Publication Award – Natural Resources

Committee Chair: Safak Yucel (safak.yucel@georgetown.edu), Georgetown University

ENRE Best Publication Award – Energy

Committee Chair: Jacob Mays (jacobmays@cornell.edu), Cornell University

 

Eligibility Criteria:

· In 2026, only those papers published between Jan. 1, 2023 and Dec. 31, 2025 (inclusive) are eligible for these awards. The relevant date is the official publication date (of the volume/issue in which the paper appears) rather than the date when a paper first becomes available online.

· A paper can be submitted only by a current ENRE member (2026 active membership is required), but the authors of the paper may not necessarily be ENRE members.

· Papers that have already won an ENRE award in the past are not eligible for any award in the current year.

· A paper can only be nominated for one of the three area awards.

· A current ENRE member can only nominate one paper for each of the three area awards.

Submission Requirements:

We encourage ENRE members to submit their paper or nominate papers written by others.

For an ENRE Best Publication Award nomination, please fill out the central ENRE Best Paper Awards Nomination Form by June 22, 2026, to:

1.   Select the area of nomination (i.e. Energy, Natural Resources, or Environment & Sustainability).

2.  Verify the eligibility of the authors and the nominated paper.

3.  Upload the electronic version of the paper written in English (pdf format)

The winner(s) will give a short presentation of the winning paper in the ENRE Awards Session during the 2026 INFORMS Annual Meeting. The presenter must register for the conference and will be responsible for the associated travel and registration expenses. The award includes an official certificate from INFORMS.

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Gokce Palak
Wake Forest University
Winston-Salem NC
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