INFORMS Prizes & Awards

An award of INFORM-ED

Doing Good with Good OR - Student Paper Competition is held each year to identify and honor outstanding projects in the field of operations research and the management sciences conducted by a student or student group that have a significant societal impact.

The Lanchester prize is awarded for the best contribution to operations research and the management sciences published in English in the past three years. The prize includes a commemorative medallion and a US $5,000 cash award. The award is given each year at the INFORMS National Meeting, if there is a suitable recipient.

The George B. Dantzig Award is given for the best dissertation in any area of operations research and the management sciences that is innovative and relevant to practice. This award has been established to encourage academic research that combines theory and practice and stimulates greater interaction between doctoral students (and their advisors) and the world of practice. The award is given at the INFORMS National Meeting.

The George E. Kimball Medal is awarded for recognition of distinguished service to the Institute and to the profession of operations research and the management sciences. The award is a medallion and a certificate.

The George Nicholson Student Paper Competition is held each year to identify and honor outstanding papers in the field of operations research and the management sciences written by a student. The prize is given each year at the INFORMS National Meeting, if there is a suitable recipient. Up to six awards (first and second place awards and up to four awards for Honorable Mention) may be given upon recommendation of the selection committee. First place carries a cash award of $600, second place $300, and each honorable mention $100. All of the finalists are also presented with certificates.

The INFORMS Expository Writing Award honors an operations researcher / management scientist whose publications demonstrate a consistently high standard of expository writing. The award is given each year at the INFORMS National Meeting if there is a suitable recipient. The award consists of $2,000 and a framed certificate that includes a brief citation.

The INFORMS Impact Prize, awarded once every two years, is intended to recognize contributions that have had a broad impact on the field. The contribution could be an idea or technique that is widely used, or it could be someone who played a major role in bringing significant methodology into widespread use (e.g. by playing a major role in the design of a software package that is now widely used, or through extensive writings and lectures aimed at practitioners). The award complements the Edelman Prize. Instead of focusing on a single large application with quantifiable impact, we are looking for ideas that are widely used. The award may go to some combination of the originator of the idea and/or the people or group who played a significant role in bringing the idea to a community who uses it.

The INFORMS Prize is awarded for effective integration of advanced analytics and operations research/management sciences (OR/MS) in an organization. The award is to be given to an organization that has repeatedly applied the principles of advanced analytics and OR/MS in pioneering, varied, novel, and lasting ways.

The purpose of this award is to recognize a teacher who has succeeded in helping his or her students to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to be effective practitioners of operations research or the management sciences.

The purpose of the new Student Chapter Annual Awards is to recognize achievements of student chapters and to motivate them to perform well.

The Undergraduate Operations Research Prize Competition is held each year to honor a student or group of students who conducted a significant applied project in operations research or management science, and/or original and important theoretical or applied research in operations research or management science, while enrolled as an undergraduate student. The prize is given each year at the INFORMS National Meeting if there is a suitable recipient.

The John von Neumann Theory prize is awarded annually to a scholar (or scholars in the case of joint work) who has made fundamental, sustained contributions to theory in operations research and the management sciences.

The Judith Liebman Award has been established to recognize outstanding student volunteers who have been "moving spirits" in their universities, their student chapters, and the Institute. The award will be an 11x8 mounted certificate signed by the Vice President for Chapters/Student Chapters/Fora, and a letter of congratulations, in a form suitable for sending to each recipient's department chair.

The Moving Spirit Award has been established to recognize outstanding geographic chapter volunteers or student chapter faculty advisors who have been "moving spirits" in their chapters.

The Moving Spirit Award has been established to recognize outstanding forum volunteers who have been "moving spirits" in their forum.

The Lectureship is awarded in honor of Philip McCord Morse in recognition of his pioneer contribution to the field of operations research and the management sciences. The award is given in odd-numbered years at the National Meeting if there is a suitable recipient. The term of the lectureship is two years. The award is $2,000, a certificate, a travel fund of $5,000, a copy of Morse's autobiography, In at the Beginnings: A Physicist's Life, and a copy of Morse and Kimball's Methods of Operations Research.

The purpose of this award is to recognize, and thereby encourage, important contributions to the welfare of society by members of our profession at the local, national, or global level.

The UPS George D. Smith Prize, consisting of a significant but symbolic physical prize and a $10,000 cash award, will be awarded annually to an academic department or program for effective and innovative preparation of students to be good practitioners of operations research.