Distinguished leaders recognized for extraordinary service to INFORMS and the profession
BALTIMORE, Oct. 21, 2025—INFORMS, the leading international association for operations research and analytics professionals, announced that Brian Denton and Les Servi have each been awarded the 2025 George E. Kimball Medal, honoring their decades of distinguished service and transformative contributions to the field of operations research and the management sciences (OR/MS).
The George E. Kimball Medal is awarded for distinguished service to INFORMS and to the profession of operations research and management science. The award honors George E. Kimball, a celebrated scientist who achieved outstanding success and recognition in the fields of quantum chemistry and operations research.
Brian Denton, professor at the University of Michigan, is recognized for his exemplary service across a wide spectrum of INFORMS leadership roles, including his tenure as president from 2016–2018. Under his leadership, INFORMS advanced ethics guidelines, established scholarship programs and launched two journals—Stochastic Systems and the INFORMS Journal on Optimization—further strengthening the discipline’s intellectual foundation. Denton has guided the organization through pivotal moments on the INFORMS Board, chaired awards committees and held senior leadership roles across societies and councils. From 2018–2023, he also led the Industrial and Operations Engineering Department at Michigan, mentoring the next generation of leaders while advancing the university’s stature in the field.
Les Servi, whose service to INFORMS and the profession spans more than four decades, is celebrated for his enduring leadership and impact. A six-year member of the INFORMS Board of Directors, he has chaired four communities, served as associate editor for three journals and led the Fellows Selection Committee. Furthermore, he founded the Social Media Analytics Section and helped establish the Telecommunications and Network Analytics Section. Servi’s influence extends beyond INFORMS: he served as chief scientist of Cyber Operations Research at The MITRE Corporation, president of the Military Operations Research Society (MORS), co-chair of Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s Data Science & AI Executive Advisory Board and as an active participant on the Defense Science Board. His plenary at the 2023 INFORMS Annual Meeting further underscored his stature as a thought leader in the field.
“Brian Denton and Les Servi each embody the very best of INFORMS: selfless service, enduring commitment and a vision for the future of better decision making through INFORMS’ broad fields of interest,” said INFORMS Executive Director Elena Gerstmann. “Their legacies are not only the programs and structures they have built, but the generations of professionals they have mentored and the impact they continue to have.”
The George E. Kimball Medal, one of INFORMS’ highest honors, will be presented at the 2025 INFORMS Annual Meeting in Atlanta, October 26–29.
About INFORMS
INFORMS is the world’s largest association for professionals and students in operations research, AI, analytics, data science and related disciplines, serving as a global authority in advancing cutting-edge practices and fostering an interdisciplinary community of innovation.
With a network of more than 12,000 members spanning academia, industry and government, INFORMS connects thought leaders, experts and emerging professionals who advance and apply AI, mathematics, analytics and other sciences and technologies to solve complex challenges and drive impactful decision-making.
Through its prestigious peer-reviewed journals, world-class conferences, industry-leading certification programs and a suite of professional resources, INFORMS empowers its community to enhance operational efficiency, elevate organizational performance and promote smarter decisions for a better world.
Discover more at www.informs.org
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