Frank P Ramsey Medal Application Process

The Frank P. Ramsey Medal is the highest award of the DAS. It was created to recognize distinguished contributions to the field of decision analysis. The medal is named in honor of Frank Plumpton Ramsey, a Cambridge University mathematician who was one of the pioneers of decision theory in the 20th century. His 1926 essay "Truth and Probability" (published posthumously in 1931) anticipated many of the developments in mathematical decision theory later made by John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern, Leonard J. Savage, and others. The Ramsey Medalists are recognized for having made substantial further contributions to that theory and its application to important classes of real decision problems. The Medal is accompanied by a $1,000 honorarium.

Distinguished contributions can be internal, such as theoretical or procedural advances in decision analysis, or external, such as developing or spreading decision analysis in new fields. Thus the specific criteria for evaluating potential Ramsey Medal recipients are a candidate's

• Theoretical, methodological, and procedural contributions to decision analysis
• Applications of decision analysis (including for new uses and into new fields)
• Other contributions promoting decision analysis (e.g. educational and public relations)
• Exceptional contributions to the Decision Analysis Society (e.g. service to society or journal)

A potential recipient need not meet all of the criteria, but contributions to each criterion are relevant.

For this award, decision analysis is defined as a prescriptive approach to provide insight for decision making based on axioms that are logically consistent with the axioms of von Neumann and Morgenstern and of Savage. Key constructs of decision analysis are utility to quantify values and probability to quantify the state of one's knowledge. There are overlapping aspects of decision analysis with other fields such as behavioral decision research, probabilistic risk analysis, and engineering and economic analyses. Behavioral decision research that addresses how people make decisions that has direct implications for how the practice of decision analysis might be improved is a contribution to decision analysis. Models of uncertain scenarios and possible consequences from risk analysis or engineering and economic modeling that are useful for decision analysis are contributions.

Please send nominations for the 2012 award to Detlof von Winterfeldt, Chair, Frank P. Ramsey Medal awards committee by e-mail at detlof@sppd.usc.edu. The closing date for nominations is April 15, 2012.

2012 Committee Chair
Detlof von Winterfeldt
Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Viterbi School of Engineering, RTH 312
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA 90089
Tel.: (949) 436 1775
e-mail: detlof@sppd.usc.edu