Pierskalla Best Paper Award

2024 Winner(s)

Winning material: Policy Optimization for Personalized Interventions in Behavioral Health

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

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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

2024
Winner(s)
Jackie Baek, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Justin Boutilier, University of Toronto
Vivek Farias, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Jónas Oddur Jónasson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Erez Yoeli, Keheala
Runner-Up
Mohsen Bayati, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business
Vin Gupta, Amazon LLC; University of Washington
Jianfeng Liu, Amazon LLC
Cristobal Pais, Amazon LLC
Robert Voigt, Amazon LLC
Elizabeth Wade, Amazon LLC
Finalist
Douglas Bish, University of Alabama
Ebru Bish, University of Alabama
Ashvin Gandhi, University of California, Los Angeles
Hussein El Hajj, Santa Clara University
Jingyuan Hu, University of California, Los Angeles
2023
Winner(s)
Timothy Chan, University of Toronto
Rafid Mahmood, University of Ottawa
Deborah O'Connor, University of Toronto
Debbie Stone, Rogers Hixon Ontario Human Milk Bank
Sharon Unger, University of Toronto
Rachel Wong, University of Toronto
Ian Yihang Zhu, National University of Singapore
Runner-Up
Dimitris J. Bertsimas , Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management and Operations Research Center
James Alcorn, United Network for Organ Sharing
Rebecca Goff, United Network for Organ Sharing
Theodore Papalexopoulos, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Darren Stewart, New York University
Nikolaos Trichakis, Massachussetts Institute of Technology
Finalist
Zhaowei She , Georgia Institute of Technology
Turgay Ayer, Georgia Institute of Technology
Jiatao Ding, INSEAD
Michael Freeman, INSEAD
Bilal Gokpinar, Northwestern University, Industrial Engineering & Management Science
Sameer Hasija, INSEAD
Danny Hughes, Georgia Tech
2022
Winner(s)
Hrayer Aprahamian, Texas A&M University
George Golovko, The University of Texas Medical Branch
Jiayi Lin, Texas A&M University
Finalist
Justin Boutilier, University of Toronto
Joan Brown, Keck Medicine of USC
Timothy Chan, University of Toronto
Wallace J. Hopp, Dept. of Industrial and Operations Engineering
University of Michigan
Song-Hee Kim, Seoul National University
Jun Li, Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan
Guihua Wang, University of Texas at Dallas
Fanyin Zheng, Graduate School of Business, Columbia University

2021
Winner(s)
Hamsa Bastani, University of Pennsylvania
Kimon Drakopoulos, University of Southern California
Kyra Gan, Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University
Vishal Gupta, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Christos Hadjicristodoulou, University of Thessaly
Su Jia, Carnegie Mellon University
Pagona Lagiou, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Andrew Li, Carnegie Mellon University
Gkikas Magiorkinis, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Dimitrios Paraskevis, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Sridhar Tayur, Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business
Sotirios Tsiodras, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens - 4th Department of Internal Medicine
Jon Vlachogiannis, AgentRisk
Runner-Up
Douglas Bish, University of Alabama
Ebru Bish, University of Alabama
Hussein El Hajj, Santa Clara University
Denise Kay, New York State Department of Health
Finalist
Justin Boutilier, University of Toronto
Timothy Chan, University of Toronto
Maria Eberg, IQVIA
Katharina Forster, Ontario Health
Claire Holloway, Ontario Health
Luciano Ieraci, Ontario Health
Jónas Oddur Jónasson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Yusuf Shalaby, University of Toronto
Erez Yoeli, Keheala
Nasrin Yousefi , University of Toronto
2020
Winner(s)
Dimitris J. Bertsimas , Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management and Operations Research Center
Hamza Tazi Bouardi, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Leonard Boussioux, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Kimberly Villalobos Carballo, 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
Omar Skali Lami, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Michael Li, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Galit Lukin, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Luca Mingardi, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Omid Nohadani, Benefits Science Technologies
Theodore Papalexopoulos, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Ivan Paskov, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Jean Pauphilet, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Bartolomeo Stellato, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Holly Wiberg, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cynthia Zeng, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Runner-Up
Justin Boutilier, University of Toronto
Timothy Chan, University of Toronto
Finalist
Daniel Adelman, University of Chicago Booth School of Business
Baris Ata, University of Chicago
John J. Friedewald, Northwestern University
A. Cem Randa, University of California San Francisco and University of California Berkeley
Kanix Wang, University of Chicago
2019
Winner(s)
 Arielle Anderer , University of Pennsylvania
Hamsa Bastani, University of Pennsylvania
 John Silberholz , University of Michigan 
Runner-Up
David G. Coffey, University of Washington
Hamed Mamani, University of Washington
Yingfei Wang, University of Washington
Zhijin Zhou, University of Washington
Finalist
Baris Ata, University of Chicago
Yichuan Ding, Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia
Joel Goh, Harvard Business School
Diana Negoescu, Princeton University
Sze-chuan Suen, University of Southern California
Stefanos A. Zenios, Stanford University
2018
Winner(s)
Jivan Romain Deglise-Hawkinson, Lean Care Solutions
Jonathan Helm, Indiana University Health
Julian Pan, Lean Care Solutions
Pengyi Shi, Purdue University
Runner-Up
Stephen Chick, INSEAD
Noah Gans, University of Pennsylvania
Ozge Yapar, University of Pennsylvania
Finalist
Hamsa Bastani, University of Pennsylvania
Osbert Bastani, University of Pennsylvania
Vishal Gupta, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Carolyn Kim, Stanford University
Hyung Paek, Yale New Haven Hospital
2017
Winner(s)
Margaret L. Brandeau, Stanford University, Management Science and Engineering
Jeremy D. Goldhaber-Fiebert, Stanford University
Sze-chuan Suen, University of Southern California
Runner-Up
Hrayer Aprahamian, Texas A&M University
Douglas Bish, University of Alabama
Ebru Bish, University of Alabama
Carri W. Chan, Columbia University
Gabriel Escobar, Kaiser Permanente Northern California
Wenqi Hu, Columbia Business School
José R. Zubizarreta, Harvard Medical School
Finalist
Stephen Chick, INSEAD
Sameer Hasija, INSEAD
2016
Winner(s)
Hamsa Bastani, University of Pennsylvania
Mohsen Bayati, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business
Runner-Up
Zuo-Jun (Max) Shen, University of California, Berkeley
Finalist
Turgay Ayer, Georgia Institute of Technology
Jagpreet Chhatwal, Merck Research Laboratories
Lauren Xiaoyuan Lu, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Can Zhang, Georgia Institute of Technology
2015
Winner(s)
Baris Ata, University of Chicago
Sridhar Tayur, Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business
Runner-Up
Stephen Chick, INSEAD
Finalist
Douglas Bish, University of Alabama
Ebru Bish, University of Alabama
Hadi El-Amine, Virginia Tech
2014
Winner(s)
Mohsen Bayati, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business
Soo-Haeng Cho, Carnegie Mellon University
Joel Goh, Harvard Business School
John Turner, University of California, Irvine
Stefanos A. Zenios, Stanford University
Finalist
Nicos Savva , London Business School
Kostas Bimpikis, Stanford University
Margaret L. Brandeau, Stanford University, Management Science and Engineering
Dan Iancu, Stanford University
Diana Negoescu, Princeton University
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
John Silberholz, University of Maryland,
Runner-Up
Finalist
Carri W. Chan, Columbia University
Stefan Scholtes, University of Cambridge, Judge Business School
2012
Awardee(s)
Vishal Ahuja , Southern Methodist University
John R. Birge, University of Chicago, Graduate School of Business
Fuqiang Zhang, University of California, Irvine
Runner-Up
Soo-Haeng Cho, Carnegie Mellon University
Tinglong Dai, Carey Business School, Johns Hopkins University
2011
Awardee(s)
Douglas Bish, University of Alabama
Ebru Bish, University of Alabama
Runner-Up
Stefanos A. Zenios, Stanford University
2010
Awardee(s)
Wallace J. Hopp, Dept. of Industrial and Operations Engineering
University of Michigan
Mark Van Oyen, University of Michigan
Soroush Saghafian, Harvard University
2009
Awardee(s)
Mariel Lavieri, University of Michigan
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, Data and Analytics Innovation Institute
2003
Awardee(s)
Ravindra K. Ahuja, University of Florida, ISE Department
2002
Awardee(s)
Jinho Lim, University of Houston
2001
Awardee(s)
Margaret L. Brandeau, Stanford University, Management Science and Engineering
Gregory S. Zaric, University of Western Ontario, Richard Ivey School of Business
2000
Awardee(s)
Allen Holder, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology