Dear colleagues,
Please join us in congratulating the 2026 award recipients of the INFORMS Military and Security Society:
- J. Steinhardt Prize: Dr. Darryl K. Ahner, Kennesaw State University
- Koopman Prize: Virbon Frial, Matthew Robbins, and Phillip Jenkins, Air Force Institute of Technology
- Seth Bonder Scholarship for Applied Operations Research in Military and Security Applications: William Kirschenman, North Carolina State University
We also extend our sincere appreciation to the award chairs-Drs. Mathieu Dahan, Loe Schlicher, and Virginia Beall-and to all reviewers for their dedicated service.
The recipients will present during the MAS Annual Awards session at the 2026 INFORMS Annual Meeting:
Monday, November 2 | 2:45–4:00 p.m.
Moscone South-12 (Hall D/Exhibit Level)
They will also be recognized during the MAS Business Meeting on Monday. We hope you will join us in celebrating their outstanding contributions to applied operations research in military and security applications.
Best regards,
Tahir Ekin
Chair, INFORMS MAS 2026 Awards Committee
------------------------------
Tahir Ekin
Fields Chair in Business Analytics
Director, TXST Center for Analytics and Data Science
Professor, Department of Information Systems and Analytics
McCoy College of Business
Texas State University
------------------------------