Professor Ron Howard, a founding father of the Decision Analysis Society, passed away last week. The community mourns his loss. Our thoughts are with his family, friends, and the many Decision Analysts who have been inspired by him.
Professor Howard was a pioneer and has made immense contributions to our field. His 1966 work, "Decision Analysis: Applied Decision Theory" followed by his 1968 work "Foundations of Decision Analysis", established and very much shaped the field as we know it today. The ideas in these works revolutionized of our field and are at the core and their influence is evident in many subsequent developments. His 1966 work "Information Value Theory" defines information value as the buying price of information, a notion that has become central in how we deal with information value. His 1960 monograph "Dynamic Programming and Markov Processes" and the two-volume 1971 "Dynamic Probabilistic Systems" makes him also one of the founding founders of the field of Markov Decision Processes.
Professor Howard was one of the founders of our Society, and one of the first Frank P. Ramsey medalists. During all these years, he collaborated with numerous colleagues, and he mentored hundreds of students, who in turn have become protagonists of the decision analysis discipline in industry and in academia.
He will be profoundly missed. His legacy will continue living on through the society's activities. In the spring, we will reflect on Professor Howard's extraordinary impact on all of us and celebrate his life in a special workshop in his honor.
Sincerely,
Robin Dillon-Merrill
President-Elect Decision Analysis Society, INFORMS
Yael Grushka-Cockayne
President Decision Analysis Society, INFORMS
Emanuele Borgonovo
Past-President Decision Analysis Society, INFORMS
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Yael Grushka-Cockayne
Altec Styslinger Foundation Bicentennial Chair in Business Administration
University of Virginia
Charlottesville VA VA
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