University of California, Los Angeles

A BRIEF HISTORY OF OR AND OM AT THE UCLA ANDERSON SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

1951 ONR sponsors "Logistics Research Project" at UCLA (Mel Salveson, School of Bus. Admin., first Director); joint between Business, Engineering, and Mathematics; becomes "Industrial Logistics Research Project" in 1952 and then "Management Sciences Research Project" in 1955.

1952 Logistics Research Project sponsors "Working Conferences on Application of Quantitative Methods to Industrial Production" (summer); many pioneers participate.

1952 First graduate course offered in School of Business Administration with substantial OR content (Mel Salveson).

1953 First pre-organizational meeting of TIMS held at UCLA (led by Mel Salveson); TIMS founded three months later.

1956 Jim Jackson joins faculty as director of project; develops his classic business game.

1956 UCLA hosts Joint Spring Meetings of the Western Section of ORSA and the Los Angeles Chapter of TIMS (this was the very first TIMS chapter).

1957 IBM funds the Western Data Processing Center (George Brown, first Director); 90 schools affiliated by 6/64.

1958 Jim Jackson elected president of TIMS (but does not serve owing to health reasons).

1959 Formal dedication of Western Data Processing Center (with Thomas J. Watson, Jr.) and star-studded conference on management science and related topics.

1959 Ford Foundation grants $1,300,000 to create the Western Management Science Institute (WMSI) with Jim Jackson as first director. Charter provides for supporting (1) research at UCLA and 13 western states, (2) scholarly seminars and symposia, (3) EDP short courses, consultation, and programming services, and (4) bringing distinguished scholars for up to a year to UCLA and participating institutions to teach, lecture, and direct research.

1960 Jacob Marschak joins faculty and founds the still-thriving Colloquium on Mathematics in the Behavioral Sciences.

1960 First Ph.D. degree granted in Quantitative Methods, to James L. McKenney.

1961 Elwood Buffa publishes his classic text Modern Production Management; still in print (8th edition).

1961 WMSI Symposium on Simulation Models held at UCLA.

1966 First M.S. degree granted in Quantitative Methods.

1966 WMSI publishes its 100th Working Paper.

1967 Jacob Marschak elected Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association.

1967 Computer Methods part of Quantitative Methods Area moves to new Accounting Information Systems Area.

1973 Jacob Marschak elected member of the National Academy of Sciences.

1973 WMSI publishes its 200th Working Paper.

1974 Arthur Geoffrion and Glenn Graves win a NATO System Science Prize for work on multicommodity distribution system design by Benders decomposition.

1974 James MacQueen elected Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics.

1976 Jacob Marschak becomes president-elect of the American Economic Association.

1977 Jacob Marschak dies; his colloquium renamed The Jacob Marschak Interdisciplinary Colloquium on Mathematics in the Behaviorial Sciences (conducted ever since by Michael Intriligator of Economics).

1978 Operations Management area broadens scope and is renamed Operations and Technology Management.

1979 Donald Erlenkotter becomes Chairman and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs of the Graduate School of Management.

1980 WMSI publishes its 300th Working Paper.

1981 Arthur Geoffrion becomes president of TIMS.

1983 Rakesh Sarin and a marketing colleague win the Best Paper Award of the Academy of Marketing Science for work on consumer preference theory.

1984 Elwood Buffa accepts the Times Mirror Chair in Management Strategy and Policy.

1986 Joint National TIMS/ORSA Meeting in Los Angeles: Don Erlenkotter is general chairman, Steven Lippman and Rakesh Sarin are program co-chairmen.

1987 Glenn Graves and co-workers win the second place TIMS Edelman Award for Management Science Achievement for their work with Mobil Oil on real-time, wide-area dispatch of tank trucks.

1987 Don Morrison accepts the William E. Leonhard Chair in Management, bringing the editorship of Management Science with him.

1989 Operations Management area renamed Operations and Technology Management, and the Center for Technology Management is founded with IBM and Rockwell International sponsorship.

1990 Rakesh Sarin accepts the Paine Chair in Management.

1990 Don Erlenkotter helps found the Production and Operations Management Society.

1991 Don Morrison becomes president of TIMS.

1991 WMSI publishes its 400th Working Paper.

1992 Arthur Geoffrion receives the third TIMS Distinguished Service Medal.

1993 WMSI publishes its 300th Reprint.

1993 Bill Pierskalla, former president of ORSA and IFORS, comes to Anderson as Dean.

1994 Management Science area renamed Decision Sciences.

1994 John Mamer becomes Department Chairman of The Anderson School and Senior Associate Dean.

1994 Uday Karmarkar accepts the Times Mirror Chair in Management Strategy and Policy.

1995 Anderson moves to palatial new quarters.

1997 Arthur Geoffrion becomes the third president of INFORMS.

1997 John Mamer becomes Interim Dean and Chris Tang succeeds him as Department Chairman and Senior Associate Dean of The Anderson School.

1998 Arthur Geoffrion elected to National Academy of Engineering and accepts the James A. Collins Chair.

1998 Kumar Rajaram and co-workers win the second place Edelman Award for Management Science Achievement for their process control work with Cerestar.

1999 Interim Dean John Mamer returns to faculty-member status.

2000 The Decision Sciences area and the Operations and Technology Management area merge into Decisions, Operations, and Technology Management (DOTM).

2000 The Health Applications Section of INFORMS creates the new, annual William Pierskalla Best Paper Award.

2001 Don Morrison receives the American Marketing Association's Churchill Award for Lifetime Achievement in Marketing Research.

2002 Arthur Geoffrion receives the Harold Larnder Memorial Prize from the Canadian Operational Research Society.

2002 Don Morrison receives the American Marketing Association's Distinguished Marketing Educator Award.

2002 Chris Tang awarded the Carter Chair in Business Administration.

2002 Arthur Geoffrion, Don Morrison, and Bill Pierskalla inducted as inaugural fellows of INFORMS, making Anderson the only business school to have three.
2002 Rakesh Sarin becomes Chairman and Senior Associate Dean of the Anderson School.

2002 The Anderson School ranks 3rd in the world in publications in four key INFORMS research journals during 1990-2002 (OR/MS Today, December 2002).

2003 Uday Karmarkar receives the MSOM Distinguished Service Award.

2003 Among management science groups in US business schools, DOTM ranks 2nd nationally in average lifetime citations per faculty member (Academic Assessment Services).

2004  Chris Tang returns to our faculty after 2 years as dean of the Business School at the National University of Singapore.

    -  Source: 50th TIMS Anniversary: OM/MS Emeriti Appreciation Night, UCLA, November 12, 2003 (updated)

Links and References

Anonymous (2003).

Associated Historic Individuals

Dyer, James S.
Esogbue, Augustine O.
Fishman, George S.
Geoffrion, Arthur M.
Kleinrock, Leonard
Lathrop, John B.
Markowitz, Harry
Mood, Alexander
Morrison, Donald G.
Pierskalla, William P.
Robinson, Randall S.
Salveson, Mel E.
Schrage, Linus
Shapley, Lloyd S.