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George Nicholson Student Paper Competition

George Nicholson Student Paper Competition

Deadline: June 2, 2023

2023 Winner(s)

Yunbei Xu, Columbia University

Winning material: Bayesian Design Principles for Frequentist Sequential Learning

Purpose of the Award

2023 Committee Co-Chairs

Anton Braverman
Northwestern University

He Wang
Georgia Institute of Technology

Click here for committee information.

The George Nicholson Committee competition is held each year to identify and honor outstanding papers in the field of operations research and the management sciences written by a student.

Prizes will be awarded and finalists will be invited to present their papers at the INFORMS Annual Meeting.

Application Process

This competition is held each year to identify and honor outstanding papers in the field of operations research and the management sciences written by a student.

Click here to learn more about the application process.

About the Award/Namesake

George Nicholson, Jr. received his M.A, degree in mathematics from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 1941.While he was an Operations Analyst with the XXI Bomber Command in the Pacific during WWII, he received the Medal of Freedom. In 1965, he was awarded the Defense Department's Exceptional Civilian Service Medal for his work a special consultant to the Air Force and as a U.S. advisor on NATO matters from the Under Secretary of the Air Force.

Learn more about George Nicholson

Past Awardees

2023 Winner(s)

Yunbei Xu, Columbia University

2023 Second Place

Xingyu Wang, Northwestern University

2023 Finalist

Akshit Kumar

Daan Rutten, Georgia Institute of Technology

Bahar Taskesen, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne

Haofeng Zhang

2022 Winner(s)

Ziv Scully and Isaac Grosof

2021 Winner(s)

Shi Dong, Stanford University

2021 Runner-Up

Yatharth Dubey, Georgia Institute of Technology

2020 First Place

Ryan Cory-Wright , Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Jean Pauphilet, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

2020 Second Place

Omar El Housni, Columbia University

2020 Honorable Mention

Yi-Chun Chen, UCLA Anderson School of Management

Ahmadreza Momeni, Stanford University

Yunzong Xu, MIT

2019 Winner(s)

Yilun Chen, Cornell University

2018 First Place

Viet Anh Nguyen, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

2017 First Place

Andrew Li, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

2017 Second Place

Bradley Sturt, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

2017 Honorable Mention

Weijun Xie, Virginia Tech

2017 Finalist

Zhi Chen, National University of Singapore Daniel Freund, Cornell University Will Ma, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Erhun Ozkan, University of Southern California Zhengyuan Zhou, Stanford University

2016 First Place

Hamsa Bastani, University of Pennsylvania

2016 Second Place

Mehdi Behroozi, University of Minnesota

2016 Honorable Mention

Yun Zeng, The Ohio State University

2016 Finalist

Rajan Udwani, MIT Rui Gao, UT Austin Ali Aouad, MIT Martin Zubeldia, MIT

2015 First Place

Linwei Xin, University of Chicago

2015 Second Place

Ruoyu Sun, University of Minnesota

2015 Honorable Mention

Xiaoshan Peng, University of Chicago

2015 Finalist

Antoine Desir, Columbia University Chun Ye, Columbia University

Wang-Chi Cheung, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Can Zhang, Georgia Institute of Technology

Brian Y. Lu, Columbia University

2014 First Place

Daniel Russo, Stanford University

2014 Second Place

Tonghoon Suk, Georgia Institute of Technology

2014 Honorable Mention

James M. Davis, Rutgers

2014 Finalist

Joel Goh, Harvard Business School

Bart Paul Gerard Van Parys, ETH Zurich

Antoine Desir, Columbia University

Santiago Balseiro, Columbia University

2013 First Place

Ruiwei Jiang, University of Florida

2013 Second Place

Ian Post, University of Waterloo

2013 Honorable Mention

Gustavo Angulo, Georgia Institute of Technology

Yonatan Gur, Columbia University

2013 Finalist

Chang-han Rhee, Stanford University

Hyung-Chan An, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Vishal Gupta, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Nathan Kallus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Ozan Candogan, Booth School of Business, University of Chicago

2012 First Place

Minjiao Zhang, Ohio State University

2012 Honorable Mention

Yi-Hao Kao, Stanford University

2012 Finalist

Yuan Zhong, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Yu Wu, Stanford University

Emre Nadar, Bilkent University

Chaithanya Bandi, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Nataly Youssef, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

2011 First Place

Kuang Xu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

2011 Second Place

Yehua Wei, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

2011 Honorable Mention

Chen Chen, Columbia University

Juliane Dunkel, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Shiqian Ma, Columbia University

2011 Finalist

Robert L. Bray, Stanford University

2010 First Place

Bo Zhang, Georgia Institute of Technology

2010 Second Place

Anicham Kumarasamy, Stanford University

2010 Honorable Mention

Henry Lam, Columbia University

2010 Finalist

Timothy Carnes, Massachusetts Inctitute of Technology

David A. Goldberg, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Lauren A. Hannah, Duke University

Alexander Zadorojniy, Tel-Aviv University

2009 First Place

Cong Shi, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

2009 Second Place

James Ostrowski, Lehigh University

2009 Honorable Mention

Ilias Diakonikolas, Columbia University

Jiheng Zhang, Georgia Institute of Technology

2009 Finalist

Ye Lu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Spyridon Schismenos, Cornell University

Neil Walton, University of Manchester

Theophane Weber, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Xiang Yan, Stanford University

2008 First Place

Erick Delage, Stanford University

2008 Second Place

Guanghui Lan, Georgia Institute of Technology

2008 Honorable Mention

Ning Cai, Columbia University

Anke van Zuylen, Cornell University

2008 Finalist

Dmitriy Katz-Rogozhnikov, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Tri-Dung Nguyen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Brad Null, Stanford University

Jiheng Zhang, Georgia Institute of Technology

2007 First Place

Santanu Dey, Purdue University

Nelson A. Uhan , Purdue University
School of Industrial Engineering

2007 Honorable Mention

Amit Partani, The University of Texas at Austin

Timothy Chan, University of Toronto

2007 Finalist

Erick Delage, Stanford University

Pranava Goundan, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

2006 First Place

Josh Reed, New York University

2006 Second Place

Alexandre Belloni, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

2006 Honorable Mention

Mustafa Akan, Northwestern University

Stephen Shum, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

2006 Finalist

Hamed Mamani, University of Washington

Kiavash Kianfar, Texas A&M University

2005 First Place

Emre Erdogan, Columbia University

2005 Second Place

Wai Kin (Victor) Chan, University of California - Berkeley

David B. Brown, Duke University

2005 Finalist

Zhaosong Lu, Georgia Institute of Technology

Muhong Zhang, University of California - Berkeley

2004 First Place

Yuval Nov, Stanford University

2004 Second Place

Melvyn Sim, National University of Singapore

2004 Honorable Mention

Ali K. Parlakturk, Stanford University

2003 First Place

Aurélie Thiele, Southern Methodist University

Ramesh Johari, Stanford University

2003 Second Place

Sanne Vincent de Boer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

2003 Honorable Mention

Karthik Natarajan, Singapore MIT Alliance, National University of Singapore

Victor Martinez de Albeniz, IESE

2002 First Place

Savas Dayanik, Columbia University

2002 Second Place

Melvyn Sim, National University of Singapore

2002 Honorable Mention

Xin Chen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Xuanming Su, University of California - Berkeley, Haas School of Business

2001 First Place

Alp Muharremoglu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

2001 Second Place

Teresa H. Chu, University of Michigan

Sanjeeb Dash, Princeton University

Gustavo Vulcano, Columbia University

2001 Honorable Mention

Nam Kyoo Boots, Vrije University

2000 First Place

Erica Plambeck, Stanford University

2000 Second Place

Marina Epelman, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

2000 Honorable Mention

Jay Sethuraman, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

1999 First Place

Bertrand Guenin, Georgia Institute of Technology

Constantinos Maglaras, Columbia University

1999 Honorable Mention

Wen Zhao, University of Pennsylvania

1998 First Place

Tito Homem-de-Mello

1998 Second Place

Lisa Fleischer

1998 Honorable Mention

Pinar Keskinocak, Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Industrial/Systems Engineering

1997 First Place

Stefanos A. Zenios, Stanford University

1997 Second Place

Ioannis Paschalidis, Boston University

1996 First Place

Jayashankar M. Swaminathan, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

1996 Second Place

Georgia Mourtzinou, Operations Research Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

1995 First Place

Noah Gans, University of Pennsylvania

1994 First Place

David P. Morton, Stanford University

1994 Second Place

Julie Bowers Lassiter, Clemson University

1993 First Place

Athanassios N. Avramidis, School of Industrial Engineering, Purdue University

1992 First Place

Julien Bramel, School of Engineering and Applied Science
Columbia University

1992 Second Place

Marvin K. Nakayama, Operations Research Department
Stanford University

1991 First Place

Vien Nguyen, Stanford University

1991 Second Place

Kalyan T. Talluri, Imperial College Business School

1990 First Place

Perwez Shahabuddin, Department of Operations Research
Stanford University

1990 Second Place

Michel X. Goemans, Operations Research Center
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

1989 First Place

Dimitris J. Bertsimas , Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management and Operations Research Center

1989 Second Place

Paul Glasserman, Columbia University

1988 First Place

Arthur T. Benjamin, Dept. of Mathematical Sciences, Johns Hopkins University

1988 Second Place

Lawrence M. Wein, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business

1987 First Place

Karl Sigman, SORIE, Cornell University

1987 Second Place

Michael A. Trick, Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business

1986 First Place

In-Soo Lee, Anderson Graduate School of Management, UCLA

1986 Second Place

Sanjay Mehrotra, Columbia University, IEOR Dept.

1985 First Place

Wallace J. Hopp, Dept. of Industrial and Operations Engineering
University of Michigan

1985 Second Place

Paul Tseng, Operation Research Center
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

1984 First Place

Robin O. Roundy, Brigham Young University

1984 Second Place

Michael Schneider, Northwestern University

1983 First Place

David D. W. Yao, Dept. of Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto

1983 Second Place

Patrick T. Harker, Dept. of Civil and Urban Engineering
University of Pennsylvania

1982 First Place

K. Sridhar Moorthy, Stanford Business School

1982 Second Place

Uday Apte, The Wharton School
University of Pennsylvania

1981 First Place

H. L. Ong, University of Waterloo

1981 Second Place

Mostafa H. Ammar, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

1980 First Place

Robert C. Leachman, University of California - Berkeley

1980 Second Place

Gur Huberman, Yale School of Organization and Management

1979 First Place

T. S. Wee, Dept. of Management Science
University of Waterloo

1979 Second Place

R. Jaikumar, Wharton School
University of Pennsylvania

1978 First Place

John J. Bartholdi, Georgia Institute of Technology James B. Orlin, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

1978 Second Place

Paul Dixon, Dept. of Management Sciences
University of Waterloo

1977 First Place

Paul H. Zipkin, Duke University, Fuqua School of Business

1977 Second Place

Osman Oguz, University of Waterloo

1976 First Place

Peter Orkenyi, Stanford University

1976 Second Place

M. A. Greene, Carnegie-Mellon University

1975 First Place

Ron S. Dembo, University of Waterloo

1975 Second Place

Richard Feldman, Northwestern University

George Nicholson Student Paper Competition

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2023 Winner(s)

Purpose of the Award

2023 Committee Co-Chairs

Application Process

About the Award/Namesake

Past Awardees

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