Past Awards
Robert A. Abrams has a passion for Operations Research and the Management Sciences. His entire professional career since earning his doctorate from Northwestern University in 1969 has been devoted to education in this field. He began at the University of Illinois at Urbana as an Assistant Professor, and progressed through the ranks at Northwestern University and The University of Chicago to his current position as Professor of Information and Decision Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). At UIC he served for many years as Head of the Department of Information and Decision Sciences, and also as Associate Dean and Acting Dean of the College of Business Administration.
Dr. Abrams has been a member of ORSA and TIMS, and subsequently INFORMS, since student days. He was very active in student affairs and meetings for both societies, serving as Chairman of ORSA's Student Affairs Committee in the '70s, Program Chairman of the 1975 ORSA/TIMS Joint National Meeting in Chicago, General Chairman of the 1983 ORSA/TIMS Joint National Meeting in Chicago, and Co-Chairman of the TIMS International Meeting held in Brazil jointly with the Operations Research Society of Brazil.
He was Chairman of the Combined Meetings Committee for TIMS and ORSA in 1986-87.
In 1984, Dr. Abrams was elected to TIMS Council for a three-year term as Vice President of Meetings. He was appointed by the Joint Council of ORSA and TIMS in 1989 to be their Executive Secretary, and subsequently he became Chairman of the OR/MS Board, the Combined Councils of TIMS and ORSA. During this period, he served on the ad hoc committee preparing for the merger of ORSA and TIMS. He was elected President of ORSA in 1993, serving a full term as President-Elect, but an abbreviated term as President, ending in December 1994 when ORSA and TIMS merged. He then served, in 1995, as the first INFORMS Vice President for International Activities. In 1997, he was appointed to a three-year term as Vice President of the International Federation of Operational Research Societies, representing INFORMS and the Canadian Operational Research Society. Within IFORS, he is responsible for Meetings, once again.
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 Robert Abrams by awarding him the George E. Kimball Medal.
Awards presented by John Jarvis, Committee Member, and John Birge, President, November 6, 2000.