INFORMS President, 2002
Michael A. Trick was the 8th President of INFORMS. He spent postdoctoral years at the University of Minnesota and the University of Bonn before joining the faculty of the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University, where he is Associate Dean, Research and Professor of Operations Research. He previously served as the President of the Carnegie Bosch Institute for Applied Studies in International Management.
Professor Trick’s research is in the application of integer and constraint programming in scheduling and resource allocation. His most visible work has been in optimal sports scheduling where he has written a number of papers on both the theory and practice of scheduling. Other works have been in the areas of computational social choice and in transportation scheduling. His research led to consulting work with numerous sports leagues, the United States Postal Service, the Internal Revenue Service, and other firms. He has been recognized for his work with an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, a Hood Fellowship from the University of Auckland (New Zealand), and as an INFORMS Fellow.
Professor Trick was the founding Editor of INFORMS Online from 1995-2000. During this period, IOL greatly expanded its scope and offerings and became the preeminent site for operations research information. He was elected to the INFORMS Board in 1998 as Director-at-Large, and was elected President of INFORMS for 2002. During his Presidential year, Professor Trick stressed the value members receive from INFORMS, and emphasized the social capital aspects of society membership. The fiftieth anniversary of ORSA/INFORMS coincided with his Presidential Year, and resulted in a number of activities, including a special issue of Operations Research and recognition for the history of ORSA and INFORMS at the Annual Conference. Since that year was also the inaugural year for the INFORMS Fellow’s program, he welcomed the inaugural class which contained many of the luminaries from throughout the history of operations research. He was awarded the INFORMS Kimball medal in 2009.
From 2004-2009, Professor Trick represented North America on the Administrative Committee of the International Federation of Operational Research Societies, with responsibility for meetings issues. In 2006, he was General Chair for the INFORMS Annual Meeting held in Pittsburgh, the largest Annual Meeting up to that time.
Professor Trick continues to use information technology to expand recognition of the field of operations research through his blog and other outlets.
B.Math (Combinatorics and Optimization), 1982, University of Waterloo; MSOR, 1984, and Ph.D., 1987, Georgia Institute of Technology.