Society Spotlight
http://www.informs.org/Community/TSL
(11/16/11, for an OR/MS Tomorrow spotlight article)
Overview:
The INFORMS Transportation Science and Logistics (TSL) Society was formed in 2004 with the merger of the Transportation Science and Logistics Sections. The Aviation Applications Section affiliated with the Society in 2008. It is now one of the largest societies within INFORMS with about 1025 members, almost half of whom are students. More are welcome (http://www.informs.org/Community/TSL/Membership)
The Society is the editorial home of one of INFORMS’ flagship journals, Transportation Science. The Society includes, in addition to the Aviations Applications Section, four special interest groups: Freight Transportation and Logistics, Urban Transportation Planning and Modeling, Facility Logistics, and Intelligent Transportation Systems. The Society is also active worldwide with international liaisons in Americas, Europe and Africa, and Asia.
Networking and Communication
TSL publishes a newsletter twice a year, has a “news and events” section on its web page, and also maintains two mailing lists, one restricted to members of TSL, and one open to anyone interested in transportation science and logistics. It also has an active open discussion forum within Linkedin.
Prizes and Awards:
TSL currently manages three different awards:
- The TSL dissertation prize is the oldest dissertation prize, with the first award given in 1970 by a committee chaired by Philip Morse. Dissertations are routinely submitted from around the world on a variety of topics in transportation
- The Robert Herman Lifetime Achievement Award in Transportation Science is awarded by the INFORMS Transportation Science and Logistics Section to an individual who throughout his or her professional career has made fundamental and sustained contributions to transportation science and logistics, and has influenced the field through her or his writings, teaching, service, and nurturing of younger professionals.
- The TSL Best Paper Award will be given every year to an outstanding paper in the field of transportation science and logistics. The paper must have been published in a refereed journal and must present innovative approaches for solving complex problems in transportation and/or logistics, with an emphasis on operations research and quantitative methods.
Activities:
In addition to sponsoring a large number of talks at every INFORMS Fall National Meeting, TSL also sponsors talks at INFORMS International Meeting and has been a sponsor of the The Triennial Symposium on Transportation Analysis (TRISTAN) an international scientific conference. It has also recently launched its First inaugural Annual TSL Workshop (http://www.informs.org/Community/TSL/TSL-Workshop).