Mordecai Avriel

Brief Biography

Mordecai Avriel was an Israeli operations researcher who is the author or editor of seven books and more than seventy articles on mathematical programming, optimization, and policy analysis. Avriel studied operations research under Douglass James Wilde at Stanford University. He received a PhD in 1966 with a dissertation on optimization with a focus on geometric programming, a class of optimization models particularly well-suited to engineering functions entailing products of powers of variables. Avriel was Professor Emeritus of Operations Research in the William Davidson Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and a former Dean of the Faculty. His industrial experience includes employment with Bechtel Corporation, Mobil Oil, Electric Power Research Institute and Bank of America. From 1995 to 2010, Avriel was Director of Analytic Development at Bank Hapoalim in Tel Aviv.

In 1976, Avriel published a comprehensive text that presents the theory and algorithms for a number of nonlinear programming methods.  In 1979, Avriel edited Engineering Optimization with Yale University Professor Ron Dembo as part of Springer’s Mathematical Programming Studies. The main purpose of the work was to bring a selection of engineering optimization problems in design to the attention of traditional mathematical programmers. The following year, he edited Advances in Geometric Programming, the eleventh volume of Mathematical Concepts and Methods in Science Engineering series.  

Avriels’s research interests evolved alongside the key developments in mathematical programming and optimization theory. As in the past, his most recent work focuses on the interaction between theory and application. This involves the implementation of existing optimization methodologies to solve practical problems and the development of new methods for future use. In finance, Avriel specialized in portfolio optimization, risk management, and financial engineering, helping investors and financial institutions navigate periods of high volatility markets.

Avriel served as President of the Operations Research Society of Israel in the mid-1980s and is a recipient of the society’s Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2006, he was elected a Fellow of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences.

Other Biographies

Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. The William Davidson Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management. Professor Emeritus Mordecai Avriel. Accessed May 7, 2015. (link)