George B. Dantzig Dissertation Award

2024 - Winner(s)

2024 Winner(s)

Purpose of the Award

2025 Committee Chair

Auyon Siddiq

UCLA

Click here for full committee list

The George B. Dantzig Award is given for the best dissertation in any area of operations research and the management sciences that is innovative and relevant to practice. This award has been established to encourage academic research that combines theory and practice and stimulates greater interaction between doctoral students (and their advisors) and the world of practice. The award is given at the INFORMS Annual Meeting.                 

Application Process

The deadline to submit 2025 applications is June 30, 2025. Click below to view more information about eligibility, procedures and deadlines

Learn more about the application process

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About the Award/Namesake

George Dantzig

George Dantzig

The son of a mathematician, George Bernard Dantzig was born in Portland, Oregon on November 8, 1914. His father, Tobias Dantzig, had been born in Latvia but, after being caught distributing anti-Tsarist propaganda, fled to Paris, where he studied under Henri Poincaré and met Anja Ourisson, then at the Sorbonne....

Learn more about George B. Dantzig

Past Awardees

2024
Winner(s)
Alp Sungu, London Business School
Second Place
Abdullah Alomar, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Honorable Mention
Leann Thayaparan, MIT
Mehrdad Ghadiri, Georgia Institute of Technology
2023
Winner(s)
Hannah Li , Columbia Business School
Honorable Mention
Antonio Castellanos, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
Paul Goelz, Carnegie Mellon University
Sean Sinclair, Cornell University
Xiao Lei , Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, Columbia University
2022
First Place
Su Jia, Carnegie Mellon University
Honorable Mention
Anish Agarwal, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Daniel Rehfeldt, Technische Universitat Berlin
Ruihao Zhu, Purdue University
2021
First Place
Somya Singhvi, University of Southern California
Second Place
Dennis Shen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Honorable Mention
Carlos Fernández, New York University
Katherine Bobroske, University of Cambridge
Scott Rodilitz, Yale School of Management
2020
First Place
Nikhil Garg, Stanford University
Finalist
Min-hwan Oh, Columbia
Thodoris Lykouris, Cornell University
Honorable Mention
Gal Mendelson, Technion
Jean Pauphilet, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2019
Winner(s)
Sebastien Martin, MIT Operations Research Center
2018
Awardee(s)
Daniel Freund, Cornell University
2017
First Place
Negin Golrezaei
Second Place
Ian Osband, Stanford University
Honorable Mention
Mehdi Behroozi, University of Minnesota
Rong Yuan, MIT
Álvaro Lorca
2016
First Place
Eoin O'Mahony, Cornell University
Second Place
Pooyan Kazemian, University of Michigan – Ann Arbor
Honorable Mention
Nathaniel D. Bastian, The Pennsylvania State University
Tugce Martagan, Eindhoven University of Technology
Vamsi Kanuri, University of Miami
2015
First Place
Alexandre Jacquillat, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Finalist
Daniela Saban, Stanford University
Yuanhui Zhang, North Carolina State University
2014
First Place
Santiago Balseiro, Columbia University
Finalist
Major Jesse Pietz, United States Air Force Academy
Robert Hammond, University of Texas at Austin
Honorable Mention
Anahita Khojandi, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
2013
First Place
Jason Acimovic, Penn State University
Finalist
Jagdish Ramakrishnan, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Samah El-Tantawy, University of Toronto
2012
First Place
Mazhar Arikan, Purdue University
Second Place
Andrei Neboian, WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management
Third Place
Nikolaos K. Trichakis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2011
First Place
John Turner, University of California, Irvine
Second Place
Timothy Carnes, Massachusetts Inctitute of Technology
Xu Andy Sun, IBM T. J. Watson Research Center
2010
First Place
Minsun Kim, University of Washington
Honorable Mention
Lolke Schakel, University of Groningen
Mariel Lavieri, University of Michigan
Steffen Rebennack, Colorado School of Mines
2009
First Place
Nitin Bakshi, London Business School
Second Place
Jagpreet Chhatwal, Merck Research Laboratories
Honorable Mention
Emmanuel Carrier
Evren Özkaya, McKinsey & Company
Hamid Nazerzadeh
2008
First Place
Sang-Hyun Kim, University of Pennsylvania
Second Place
Sam K. Hui, Georgia Institute of Technology
Tobias Achterberg, Zuse Institute Berlin, Germany
Honorable Mention
Kyungduck Cha, Georgia Institute of Technology
Pelin Pekgun, University of South Carolina
2007
First Place
Timothy Chan, University of Toronto
Second Place
Pallav Sarma, Stanford University
Finalist
Ioannis Gamvros, The Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland
Shawndra Hill, University of Pennsylvania
Shih-Fen Cheng, University of Michigan
Honorable Mention
Andreea Popescu, Georgia Institute of Technology
2006
First Place
A. Kevin Tang, Cornell University
Second Place
Melda Ormeci, Ozyegin University
Honorable Mention
Ching-Hua Chen-Ritzo, IBM TJ Watson Research Center
Nan Kong, Purdue University, Biomedical Engineering
Tao Yao, Penn State University
2005
First Place
Devavrat Shah, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Robert W. Day, University of Connecticut
Honorable Mention
Daniel Quadt, Catholic University of Eichstaett-Ingolstadt
Oguzhan Alagoz, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Susan Budge, University of Alberta
2004
First Place
Jeffrey Ohlmann, University of Iowa, Henry B. Tippie College of Business & Management Science
Honorable Mention
Berkin Toktas, T-Mobile USA
Rodney Wallace, George Washington University
Valdo Durrleman, Stanford University
Xuanming Su, University of California - Berkeley, Haas School of Business
2003
First Place
Paat Rusmevichientong, Cornell University
Honorable Mention
Martin Durbin, Decisive Analytics Corporation
Matthew S. Thompson, University of Western Ontario
Milind Sohoni, Indian School of Business
Z. Justin Ren, Boston University
2002
First Place
Daniela Pucci de Farias, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Honorable Mention
Hongsheng Zhong, UPS
John Sniezek, RouteSmart Technologies
Julie L. Swann, Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Industrial & Systems Engineering
Juta Pichitlamken, Kasetsart University, Dept. of Industrial Engineering
2001
First Place
Andrew Armacost, United States Air Force Academy
Honorable Mention
Brian Nathanson, OptiStatim LLC
Stylianos Kavadias, Georgia Institute of Technology
Vishal Gaur, Cornell University, The Johnson School
2000
First Place
Shabbir Ahmed, Georgia Institute of Technology
Second Place
Prashant Fuloria, Stanford University
Honorable Mention
Kirk Yost, Mitre Corporation
Terry Taylor , University of California - Berkeley
Vinayak Deshpande, Kenan-Flagler Business School, The University of North Carolina
1999
First Place
Justin Boesel, Northwestern University
Honorable Mention
Mark E. Lewis, Cornell University
William D. Hall, CitationShares
1998
First Place
Daniel Adelman, University of Chicago
Second Place
Yunzeng Wang, University of California - Riverside
Honorable Mention
Steven F. Baker, US Air Force Academy
1997
First Place
Alberto Caprara, DEIS - University of Bologna
Second Place
Sarah Stock Patterson, Duke University
Honorable Mention
Jayashankar M. Swaminathan, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Stefanos A. Zenios, Stanford University
1996
First Place
S. Raghavan, University of Maryland, Robert H Smith School of Business
Second Place
Arthur C. Hsu, United Technologies Research Center
Honorable Mention
Geoffrey C. Murray, A.T. Kearney Inc.
Giuseppe Russo
Raman K. Nurani
1995
First Place
David Lowell, Castilleja School
Second Place
Karlos Artto
Honorable Mention
Venkatesh Ravirala, Neeroh LLC
1994
First Place
Raymond Cheung, Hong Kong University
Second Place
Jenny Ming Chen
Honorable Mention
David P. Morton, Stanford University
Shannon Anderson, Rice University
Teck Ho