INFORMS Open Forum

Dear all,

The Applied Probability Society seeks to identify and honor outstanding papers in the field of applied probability that are written primarily by a student.  We define applied probability broadly, as any paper related to the modeling, analysis, and control of stochastic systems. 

The paper's contribution may lie in the formulation of new mathematical models, in the development of new mathematical or computational methods, in the innovative application of existing methods, or in the opening of new application domains.  The abstracts of the winning papers will be published in the Stochastic Systems journal, which does not preclude the work from being published in any journal of your choice.

Submission Guidelines

Submissions will be accepted until midnight (US Eastern Standard Time) of June 1st, 2025.  Submissions should be emailed to the committee chair David A. Goldberg (dag369@cornell.edu) with the subject "APS Student Paper Competition 2025."

A complete entry consists of a paper and a letter certifying eligibility.

1. The paper should be in .pdf format, with the names and affiliations of all authors appearing on the title page (along with an abstract).  There is no page limit, and you may use any latex template of your choosing (which should satisfy reasonable standards regarding e.g. font size and page numbering).  We encourage authors to think carefully about how to best present their results, and note that clarity of presentation/readability will in general be part of the judging criteria.  As a default, you may consider using the INFORMS latex template files given for submissions to the Stochastic Systems journal:  https://pubsonline.informs.org/authorportal/latex-style-files .
2. The letter certifying eligibility should be signed by the faculty advisor, the student(s), and any additional co-authors, attesting that all eligibility criteria are satisfied.  In particular, the letter should confirm that the student's contribution comprises the majority of the paper.  It should also confirm APS membership as in item 7 of the eligibility requirements. The sole purpose of this letter is to confirm eligibility; this is not a recommendation letter for the student or for the paper.  The names of all student co-authors who satisfy the eligibility criteria (i.e. entrants to the competition) should be clearly indicated in the letter.
3. The paper and eligibility letter should be submitted as a single merged PDF file attached to the email, with the paper coming first.  The file should be named <paper title>.pdf ("My paper.pdf").

Eligibility Criteria

Submissions must satisfy the following conditions.

1. The entrant must have been a student (PhD, masters, or undergraduate) on or after January 1, 2025.
2. The research must have been conducted while the entrant was a student.
3. One or more advisors may appear as co-authors on the paper, but the student's contributions must make up the majority of the paper.  Note that the submission to the competition may be different from a journal submission, in order to potentially highlight the results to which the student made the most significant contributions.
4. An entrant can be a (co-)author in at most one paper submitted to the competition.  More than one entrant per paper is allowed as long as they are eligible (in which case the award would be split).
5. The paper must present original research results (a summary of multiple papers is not eligible).
6. The paper must not have placed (1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, etc.) or been selected as a finalist in a previous INFORMS competition.
7. All student entrants must either be INFORMS APS Community members, or have initiated the process to become a member. Detailed instructions for joining the society appear at the end of this announcement. This information can also be found at: Membership - Applied Probability Society
8. The student entrant must be available to present the work on Sunday afternoon, October 26, 2025 at the INFORMS Annual Meeting in Atlanta, GA.

For more information visit the paper competition website: http://connect.informs.org/aps/apsawards/awards

 

Joining the INFORMS APS Community:

You can join the INFORMS APS Community in two ways. If you are an INFORMS member, go to https://myaccount.informs.org and log in to your account. Once you are inside your profile, you'll see the "Join" menu right next to "Store" on the top right corner (if you are using a desktop browser). Click on the Join menu and on the lefthand side of the screen you'll see a bar, showing multiple options, including "Renew and Review Memberships", which you can click and then you'll be able to select joining APS.

To enroll in the INFORMS APS Community, without having to join the broader INFORMS Community and/or register for INFORMS conferences more broadly, please send an email of the following template to : iwilliams@informs.org , CCing beth.west@informs.org and efrancis@informs.org 

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Subject : Joining INFORMS APS Community

Dear INFORMS,

Hello.  I am interested in formally joining the INFORMS APS Community (without joining the broader INFORMS community) at the cost of either $5 for a student, $10 for a non-student, or $5 for retiree status as appropriate (as I wish to only join the APS Community, not INFORMS broadly).  Can you please follow up with registration, fees, and invoice?  Thanks in advance.

Also, for your convenience, please find some additional information below.

First name

Last name

Email

Phone

-Your name------------------------------------

For information on joining the broader INFORMS society, which will include the option to join the INFORMS APS community (although cost more for an annual membership), please see Join INFORMS or Renew Your Membership

Dave Goldberg (chair)
ORIE
Cornell University

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Daniela Hurtado-Lange (she/her)
Drake Scholar
Assistant Professor in Operations
Kellogg School of Management
Northwestern University
https://sites.google.com/view/daniela-hurtado-lange
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