Harvey M. Wagner

Brief Biography

Harvey M. Wagner was an operations researcher who served as The Institute of Management Sciences (TIMS) and made valuable contributions to linear programming, inventory theory, and management consulting. Born in San Francisco, Wagner moved to Los Angeles at age ten. He resisted the temptation to study at the University of California at Los Angeles with his schoolmates and instead attended Stanford University. He was a prize-winning debater whose parents hoped that he would pursue law. After taking a probability course taught by Kenneth J. Arrow, Wagner developed a particular interest in economics and statistics. He developed a close student-mentor relationship with Arrow who supervised his thesis on Monte Carlo simulation and helped him get a job at the RAND Corporation.

Wagner spent the summer of 1953 at RAND, where he interned with Murray Geisler’s Logistics Department. While waiting on his security clearance, Wagner was received of George E. Kimball and Phillip Morse’s Methods of Operations Research (1951) from Alexander Mood, RAND’s mathematics head. That summer, Wagner briefly met George B. Dantzig, who later taught him the simplex method of linear programming. The following year, Wagner used linear programming to solve dynamic Leontief models. It was also at RAND where he was introduced to computer science via an IBM Card-Programmed Electronic Calculator.

By 1954, Wagner knew he wanted to earn a PhD in something other than statistics. He spent a year studying economics under Richard Stone at King's College, Cambridge. Wagner returned to RAND in 1955 and was encouraged by Arrow to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He spent two years at MIT but accepted a position at Stanford prior to receiving a degree. Wagner eventually earned a PhD in 1960, incorporating his continued RAND and Stanford research activities.

In 1960 Wagner joined the McKinsey & Company management firm as an OR consultant to their San Francisco office. He befriended David B. Hertz, his New York counterpart and editor of the Publications in Operations Research book series. At McKinsey, Wagner made multiple realizations about the implementation of OR models and the importance of transparency. His group’s work was recognized in 1984 when he and his colleagues were awarded the Franz Edelman Award.

Wagner left California to join the Department of Administrative Sciences at Yale University, joining his longtime friend Robert Fetter and the economist Herbert Scarf. At Yale he and several of his students made developments in inventory and production control, linear programming and bounded variables, and production scheduling. Wagner moved the University of North Carolina to be its business school's Dean.

Over the course of his career, Wagner was an accomplished author. His 1969 book, Principles of Operations Research with Applications to Management Decisions, was extraordinary well received by OR educators and was awarded the Lanchester Prize and Maynard Book of the Year Award by the Operations Research Society of America and the American Institute of Industrial Engineers, respectively. In 1996, he received the first annual Expository Writing Award from the Institute of Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). Wagner is an elected fellow of INFORMS, the American Statistical Association, and the Manufacturing and Service Operations Management Society. In 2004, he received the honor for having published one of the Ten Most Influential Papers in Management Science.

Other Biographies

Profiles in Operations Research: Harvey M. Wagner
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Wikipedia Entry for Harvey M. Wagner

INFORMS. Miser-Harris Presidential Gallery: Harvey M. Wagner. Accessed April 21, 2015. (link)