INFORMS Career FAQ: Arthur Geoffrion

To those who picture academic life as an ivory tower, a conversation with Art Geoffrion comes as a real revelation.

"During high school and college I had to struggle, like most young people, with decisions that would have important, lasting consequences. I became fascinated with the notion that there might be scientific ways to make such decisions and was overjoyed to find an entire field devoted to them."

After seeking reassurance that management science could have a "real world" impact, Geoffrion completed his Ph.D. at Stanford University, accepted a teaching job at UCLA, and proceeded to demonstrate just how great that impact could be.

Consulting for private industry, he developed an improved technique for distribution system design that earned a NATO System Science Prize. He put this same technique to work for the Department of Defense in the post-Vietnam era to determine how it could achieve a 10% savings in distribution cost while improving service 15%. In other projects, he used computer models to show a plastics firm how to lop up to 35% off scheduling costs and help a telephone company determine the most profitable way to invest its capital.

Geoffrion's consulting led to research breakthroughs in optimization and a new theoretical foundation for modeling. And he uses examples drawn from both personal experience and journals to make courses come alive for his students.

Now Professor of Management Science at UCLA, he is a firm believer that academic work based on practical problems produces not just economic benefits-but better teaching and research, as well.