Student Paper Prize

The INFORMS Optimization Society Student Paper Prize, established in 2006 and administered by the Optimization Society, is awarded annually at the INFORMS Annual Meeting for the most outstanding student led paper in optimization. The prize serves as an esteemed recognition of promising students who are looking for an academic or industrial career.

The award includes a cash amount of US$3,000 and a citation certificate. The winner(s) will be invited to give a presentation in a special award session sponsored by the Optimization Society during the INFORMS annual meeting. The winners will be responsible for all travel expenses associated with the presentation of their paper at the INFORMS meeting. Award winners are also asked to contribute an article about their award-winning work to the Optimization Society newsletter.

Eligibility

The paper and the nominee(s) must satisfy the following conditions to be eligible for the prize:

1. The paper must have been published or submitted for publication in a refereed professional journal within the three calendar years leading up to the year the award is given. For example, for the 2025 award, papers must have been submitted or published between January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2024.
2. The topic of the paper must belong to the field of optimization in its broadest sense.
3. The paper may not have been recognized by any other INFORMS award in the past years as a winner, runner-up, or honorable mention recipient.
4. At most two students can be nominated for the paper and a nominee can be nominated for at most one paper in the current year.
5. The nominee(s) must be a student on the first of January in the year of the current award.
6. Any co-author(s) of the paper who are not nominated for the award must acknowledge that the majority of the work was performed by the nominee(s).
7. The prize may be awarded once in a lifetime to any individual.

Application process

1) First, a single PDF file containing:

1. A copy of the paper;
2. A letter signed by all co-authors attesting that the majority of the work was done by the student(s);
3. A nomination letter attesting that the eligibility conditions have been satisfied by the entrant(s) and the paper.

2) Fill out the information and eligibility form here. 

Winners and committee members