Past Awards
After receiving his PhD degree from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn in 1966, Carl M. Harris held his first professional position with the Western Electric Company, after which he joined the non-profit Research Analysis Corporation. Following RAC, he began his academic career at The George Washington University, subsequently going to Syracuse University as Chair of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research. After Syracuse, he went to the University of Virginia and then finally to George Mason University, where he has been Department Chair and Associate Dean. He is currently the BDM International Professor of Operations Research at GMU. For many years, he has also been an active consultant in OR to government and industry. He is the author/co-author of approximately eighty refereed papers, co-author of three editions of the popular text Fundamentals of Queueing Theory, co-editor of three volumes of research papers, and co-author of two large queueing software packages. He is co-editor of the Encyclopedia of Operations Research and Management Science as well.
Carl has been unselfish and generous in providing dedicated service to ORSA, TIMS and INFORMS for many years, ultimately leading to his election as Secretary and President of ORSA. He is a past Trustee of the Washington OR/MS Council and Chairman of the District of Columbia Chapter of TIMS. He has been active in the leadership of the Applied Probability Interest Group throughout its 25 years, including a past chairmanship and conference organizer.
Dr. Harris has served as Area/Associate Editor for the ORSA Journal on Computing, Queueing Systems, Operations Research and International Abstracts of Operations Research. He was Program Chair for the very successful 1988 Joint National Washington, D.C. ORSA/TIMS Meeting. He has served on nearly every major ORSA and INFORMS committee — Lanchester Prize, Practice of OR, Publications, and Public Awareness, to name a few; and he has chaired many. In addition, he has represented ORSA, TIMS and INFORMS on numerous, major national science and engineering committees.
Carl Harris cares deeply about securing the future of operations research, as well as honoring its past. He created the INFORMS President’s Award and proposed the INFORMS Prize for the Exemplary Practice of OR. As a long-time member of the Public Awareness Committee, he is a continuing lecturer in the INFORMS Teachers Program, as well as the originator of the outreach PBS video. As member and past Chair of the History and Traditions Committee, he is co-designer of the Presidential Photo Gallery. He served as an ORSA/TIMS Visiting Lecturer beginning in 1978 and continues to do considerable speaking at universities, professional meetings, and public affairs.
For his distinguished and enthusiastic service to the profession and the Society, the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences expresses its profound appreciation to Carl Harris by awarding him the 1999 George E. Kimball Medal.
Awards presented by Peter V. Norden, Committee Chair, and Thomas L. Magnanti, President, November 8, 1999.