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Pierskalla Best Paper Award

2021 Winner(s)

Winning material: Deploying a Reinforcement Learning System for COVID-19 Testing at the Greek Border

2021 Winner(s)

  • Kyra Gan, Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University
  • Su Jia, Carnegie Mellon University
  • Andrew Li, Carnegie Mellon University
  • Sridhar Tayur, Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business
Winning material: Toward a Liquid Biopsy: Greedy Approximation Algorithms for Active Sequential Hypothesis Testing

Purpose of the Award

The Health Applications Society of INFORMS sponsors an annual competition for the Pierskalla Award, which recognizes research excellence in the field of health care management science. The award includes an honorarium for the best paper presented in a Health Applications Society sponsored session at the annual INFORMS conference. The award is named after Dr. William Pierskalla to recognize his contribution and dedication to improving health services delivery through operations research. Dr. Pierskalla is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the Anderson School at UCLA and the Ronald A. Rosenfeld Professor Emeritus, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and serves as an editor on numerous operations research journals.

Application Process

View information about eligibility, procedures and deadlines
Click here for more information

About the Award/Namesake

Pierskalla Best Paper Award

William P. Pierskalla, Ph.D., is the John E. Anderson Professor of Management and Former Dean of the John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA. He is also the Ronald A. Rosenfeld Professor Emeritus, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He holds the A.B. in Economics and M.B.A. degrees from Harvard University, an M.A. in mathematics from the University of Pittsburgh and a M.S. in statistics and a Ph.D. in operations research from Stanford University..

Learn more about William P. Pierskalla »

Past Awardees

2021 Winner(s)
Hamsa Bastani, University of Pennsylvania Kimon Drakopoulos, University of Southern California
 Vishal Gupta, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Jon Vlachogiannis, AgentRisk
 Christos Hadjicristodoulou, University of Thessaly
 Pagona Lagiou, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
 Gkikas Magiorkinis, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
 Dimitrios Paraskevis, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
 Sotirios Tsiodras, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens - 4th Department of Internal Medicine
Kyra Gan, Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University
 Su Jia, Carnegie Mellon University
 Andrew Li, Carnegie Mellon University
 Sridhar Tayur, Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business
2021 Finalist
Nasrin Yousefi , University of Toronto
 Timothy Chan, University of Toronto
 Yusuf Shalaby, University of Toronto
 Maria Eberg, IQVIA
 Katharina Forster, Ontario Health
 Claire Holloway, Ontario Health
 Luciano Ieraci, Ontario Health
Justin Boutilier, University of Toronto Jónas Oddur Jónasson, London Business School Erez Yoeli, Keheala
2021 Runner-Up
Hussein El Hajj, Virginia Tech Ebru Bish, Virginia Tech Douglas Bish, Virginia Tech Denise Kay, New York State Department of Health
2020 Winner(s)
Dimitris J. Bertsimas , Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management and Operations Research Center Leonard Boussioux, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
 Ryan Cory-Wright , Massachusetts Institute of Technology
 Arthur Delarue, MIT Operations Research Center Vassilis Digalakis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
 Alexandre Jacquillat, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Driss Lahlou Kitane, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
 Galit Lukin, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
 Michael Li, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
 Luca Mingardi, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
 Omid Nohadani, Benefits Science Technologies
 Agni Orfanoudaki Theodore Papalexopoulos, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
 Ivan Paskov, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
 Jean Pauphilet, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
 Omar Skali Lami, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
 Bartolomeo Stellato, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
 Hamza Tazi Bouardi, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
 Kimberly Villalobos Carballo, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
 Holly Wiberg, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
 Cynthia Zeng, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2020 Finalist
Baris Ata, University of Chicago John J. Friedewald, Northwestern University
 A. Cem Randa, University of California San Francisco and University of California Berkeley
Daniel Adelman, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
 Kanix Wang, University of Chicago
2020 Runner-Up
Justin Boutilier, University of Toronto Timothy Chan, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2019 Winner(s)
 Arielle Anderer , University of Pennsylvania
 Hamsa Bastani, University of Pennsylvania  John Silberholz , University of Michigan 
2019 Finalist
Baris Ata, University of Chicago Yichuan Ding, Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia
 Stefanos A. Zenios, Stanford University
Sze-chuan Suen, University of Southern California Diana Negoescu, Princeton University Joel Goh, Harvard Business School
2019 Runner-Up
Zhijin Zhou, University of Washington
 Yingfei Wang, University of Washington
 Hamed Mamani, University of Washington David G. Coffey, University of Washington
2018 Winner(s)
Pengyi Shi, Purdue University
 Jonathan Helm, Indiana University Jivan Romain Deglise-Hawkinson, Lean Care Solutions
 Julian Pan, Lean Care Solutions
2018 Finalist
Hamsa Bastani, University of Pennsylvania Osbert Bastani, University of Pennsylvania
 Carolyn Kim, Stanford University
Taylor Corcoran, UCLA
 Elisa Long Fernanda Bravo, UCLA
Vishal Gupta, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Brian Rongqing Han, USC
 Song-Hee Kim, USC
 Hyung Paek, Yale New Haven Hospital
2018 Runner-Up
Stephen Chick, INSEAD Noah Gans, University of Pennsylvania Ozge Yapar, University of Pennsylvania
2017 Winner(s)
Sze-chuan Suen, University of Southern California Margaret L. Brandeau, Stanford University, Management Science and Engineering Jeremy D. Goldhaber-Fiebert, Stanford University
2017 Finalist
Sasa Zorc Stephen Chick, INSEAD Sameer Hasija, INSEAD
Anil Aswani Philip Kaminsky Yonatan Mintz Yoshimi Fukuoka Elena Flowers
2017 Runner-Up
Wenqi Hu, Columbia Business School Carri W. Chan, Columbia University José R. Zubizarreta, Harvard Medical School Gabriel Escobar, Kaiser Permanente Northern California Hrayer Aprahamian, Virginia Tech Douglas Bish, Virginia Tech Ebru Bish, Virginia Tech
2016 Winner(s)
Hamsa Bastani, University of Pennsylvania Mohsen Bayati, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business
2016 Finalist
Susan Feng Lu Lauren Xiaoyuan Lu, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Turgay Ayer, Georgia Institute of Technology Anthony Bonifonte Anne Spaulding Jagpreet Chhatwal, Merck Research Laboratories Can Zhang, Georgia Institute of Technology
2016 Runner-Up
Anil Aswani Zuo-Jun (Max) Shen, University of California, Berkeley Auyon Saddiq
2015 Winner(s)
Baris Ata, University of Chicago Anton Skaro Sridhar Tayur, Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business
2015 Finalist
Justin Jia Hui Zhao
Hadi El-Amine, Virginia Tech Ebru Bish, Virginia Tech Douglas Bish, Virginia Tech
Dan Yamin Yoku Ibuka Alison P. Galvani Jeffery P. Townsend
2015 Runner-Up
Stephen Chick, INSEAD Martin Forster Paolo Pertile
2014 Winner(s)
Soo-Haeng Cho, Carnegie Mellon University Hoon Jang Taesik Lee John Turner, University of California, Irvine
Joel Goh, Harvard Business School Mohsen Bayati, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business Sundeep Singh David Moore Stefanos A. Zenios, Stanford University
2014 Finalist
Diana Negoescu, Princeton University Kostas Bimpikis, Stanford University Margaret L. Brandeau, Stanford University, Management Science and Engineering Dan Iancu, Stanford University
Nicos Savva , London Business School Michael Freeman Stefan Scholtes, University of Cambridge, Judge Business School
2013 Winner(s)
Dimitris J. Bertsimas , Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management and Operations Research Center Allison O’Hair Stephen Relyea John Silberholz, University of Maryland,
2013 Finalist
Song-Hee Kim Marcelo Olivares Gabriel Escobar Carri W. Chan, Columbia University
Ludwig Kuntz Roman Mennicken Stefan Scholtes, University of Cambridge, Judge Business School
2013 Runner-Up
Dan Yamin Arieh Gavious
2012 Awardee(s)
Vishal Ahuja , Southern Methodist University
 John R. Birge, University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business Fuqiang Zhang, University of California, Irvine
2012 Runner-Up
Reza Yaesoubi Ted Cohen
Tinglong Dai, Carey Business School, Johns Hopkins University Soo-Haeng Cho, Carnegie Mellon University
2011 Awardee(s)
Ebru Bish, Virginia Tech Douglas Bish, Virginia Tech Shiguang Xie Anthony Slonim
2011 Runner-Up
Stefanos A. Zenios, Stanford University Donald Lee
2010 Awardee(s)
Soroush Saghafian, Harvard University Mark Van Oyen, University of Michigan Jeffrey Desmond Steven Kronick Wallace J. Hopp, Dept. of Industrial and Operations Engineering
University of Michigan
2009 Awardee(s)
Mariel Lavieri, University of British Columbia Scott Tyldesley William Morris Martin L. Puterman, University of British Columbia, Faculty of Communications & Business Administration
2008 Awardee(s)
W. Art Chaovalitwongse, Rutgers University Yaju Fan, Rutgers University Rajesh Sachdeo, Jersey Shore University Medical Center
2007 Awardee(s)
Chris P. Lee, University of Pennsylvania Stefanos A. Zenios, Stanford University
2006 Awardee(s)
Stephen Chick, INSEAD Hamed Mamani, University of Washington David Simchi-Levi, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2005 Awardee(s)
Eva K. Lee, Georgia Institute of Technology Siddhartha Maheshwary Jacquelyn Mason
2004 Awardee(s)
Panos M. Pardalos Wanpracha Chaovalitwongse Leonidas D. Iasemidis J. Chris Sackellares Deng-Shan Shiau Paul R. Carney Oleg A. Prokopyev Vitaliy A. Yatsenko
2003 Awardee(s)
H. Edwin Romeijn Ravindra K. Ahuja, University of Florida, ISE Department James F. Dempsey Arvind Kumar
2002 Awardee(s)
Jinho Lim, University of Houston Michael C. Ferris David M. Shepard
2001 Awardee(s)
Gregory S. Zaric, University of Western Ontario, Richard Ivey School of Business Margaret L. Brandeau, Stanford University, Management Science and Engineering
2000 Awardee(s)
Allen Holder, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

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