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Announcing the 2026 Ramsey Medal Winner: Professor Ali Abbas
On behalf of the Decision Analysis Society and the Ramsey Medal Committee, we are delighted to announce that Professor Ali Abbas of the University of Southern California has been awarded the 2026 Frank P. Ramsey Medal for his distinguished contributions to the field of decision analysis.
Professor Abbas is widely recognized for his deep and wide-ranging contributions to decision analysis, especially in utility theory, multiattribute utility theory, entropy methods, probability encoding, value of information, and decision-making under uncertainty. His scholarship has advanced both the foundations and applications of decision analysis, with influential work on maximum entropy utility, utility copulas, one-switch independence, multiattribute utility functions, target-based decision making, and risk-informed decisions in complex systems.
Ali's publication record has had a broad and lasting impact on the field. His work has appeared in leading journals including Operations Research, Decision Analysis, Management Science, the European Journal of Operational Research, Risk Analysis, and IEEE Systems Journal. He received the Decision Analysis Society Best Publication Award in 2011 for "Normative Decision Making with Multiattribute Performance Targets" with Jim Matheson, and the IEEE Systems Journal Best Publication Award in 2019 for work on the use of utility theory in engineering design. He has also received multiple Decision Analysis Society publication award runner-up honors, most recently, the Decision Analysis Journal Clemen-Kleinmuntz 2026 publication award. On the teaching side, Ali most recently won the 2026 Viterbi School of Engineering Excellence in Teaching award.
Professor Abbas has made major contributions through books and teaching as well. He is co-author, with Ron Howard, of Foundations of Decision Analysis, a widely used textbook in the field. He is also the author of Foundations of Multiattribute Utility and Ethical Decision Quality: Building an Ethical Decision Culture, and the editor or co-editor of volumes including Next Generation Ethics: Engineering a Better Society and Improving Homeland Security Decisions. These works have helped shape how decision analysis is taught, extended, and applied in settings ranging from engineering design to public policy and homeland security.
Ali has also been a prominent ambassador for decision analysis in practice. At USC, he served as Founding Director of the Neely Center for Ethical Leadership and Decision-Making and as Director of the Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events. Through these roles, and through his broader professional work, he has promoted the use of decision analysis in government, national security, transportation security, ethical leadership, public policy, and executive education. His work has engaged leaders and organizations including the Department of Homeland Security, the Transportation Security Administration, the U.S. military, and international policy audiences.
His service to the decision analysis community has been equally substantial. Professor Abbas has served as an Associate Editor for Operations Research and Decision Analysis, as an inaugural area editor for the Decision Analysis Department of IIE Transactions, and as guest editor for major special issues, including the Operations Research special issue honoring Kenneth Arrow and the Decision Analysis special issue on Decision Analysis and Social Media. He has also organized conferences and workshops, served on INFORMS and Decision Analysis Society committees, and mentored students who continue to contribute to the society.
Ali's impact extends beyond academia. He has worked to broaden decision education through public outreach, media, TEDx talks, decision-making social networks, and volunteer efforts teaching decision skills to youth, including at-risk teens and students in juvenile detention settings. His efforts have helped bring decision analysis to new audiences and demonstrated the field's relevance to personal, organizational, and societal decisions.
Professor Abbas will offer remarks during the DAS Award Session at the INFORMS Annual Meeting in San Francisco, on November 2 , 2026
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About the Award
The Frank P. Ramsey Medal is the highest honor awarded by the Decision Analysis Society. It recognizes individuals for distinguished contributions to the field of decision analysis. The medal commemorates Frank P. Ramsey, whose seminal 1926 essay "Truth and Probability" laid the foundation for modern subjective probability and decision theory.
Please join us in congratulating Ali!
The 2026 Ramsey Medal Committee consisted of:
Yael Grushka-Cockayne (Chair, Past President of DAS), Sam Bodily, David Budescu, David Brown, Vicki Bier, and Ahti Salo.
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Yael Grushka-Cockayne
Darden School of Business
University of Virginia
Charlottesville VA
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